It happens fast: in November 2023, Lukas Raeder announced his retirement. By January 2024, it was no longer an issue. He will play in the Oberliga in the future.

Lukas Raeder was most recently in goal for the winning team of Rot-Weiss Essen at the NRW-Traditionsmasters in Mülheim. And the 30-year-old has probably tasted blood again.

Because in November 2023, at the age of 29, he announced his early retirement. “I have decided to end my career. I hardly played at all in Duisburg at the end and wondered a lot whether I still wanted to continue. There were talks, also with clubs from abroad. But nothing convinced me one hundred percent,” he told ‘Sport Bild’ at the time.

Now comes the resignation from the resignation: Because TuS Bövinghausen was able to convince the former goalkeeper, who already played for Rot-Weiss Essen, MSV Duisburg, FC Schalke 04 and FC Bayern Munich. Raeder will make his TuS debut as early as Friday, January 19, 2024, at 7 p.m. A test match against the regional league team Rot Weiss Ahlen is on the program at Provinzialstraße.

“We are very happy that this worked out. Lukas is an excellent goalkeeper who simply has the time for soccer again and, of course, feels great enthusiasm for it. He signed with us before the test game and is now a player for TuS Bövinghausen,” TuS boss Ajan Dzaferoski told Forecasting.

Bövinghausen now has a total of around 20 players under contract. ”The big change has worked well. We were able to get rid of the guys who were very expensive and signed a lot of young and hungry talents in return. I’m confident that we’ll stay in the league. And with Lukas, the young team now also has fantastic support in goal,” explains Dzaferoski.

Lukas Raeder’s CV includes the German championship and the DFB Cup victory.

Raeder is no stranger to his hometown of Essen. The 1.94-meter-tall goalkeeper played in the youth teams at Hafenstraße before moving to the A-youth team of FC Schalke 04, with whom he won the German A-youth championship.

In the summer of 2012, the Essen native’s career really took off. Raeder signed a contract with FC Bayern Munich, where he was able to learn from none other than Manuel Neuer between 2012 and 2014. He made his Bundesliga debut for Bayern on April 12, 2014, against Borussia Dortmund. Four days later, he was in goal for the semi-final of the DFB Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt (5-1). Since then, he has won the German championship and the DFB Cup.

In the summer of 2014, he left Bayern for Portugal. Raeder spent three years at Vitória Setúbal before moving on to England to join Bradford City. After a year in the UK, he returned to his home town of Essen in July 2018.

He was under contract with RWE again for the 2018/2019 season and moved to VfB Lübeck after a year. After two years in northern Germany, he sought his luck abroad again – this time in Bulgaria. So Raeder’s next stop in the 2021/2022 season was Lokomotiv Plovdiv. A year later, he was back in the Ruhr area and signed with MSV Duisburg for one year before becoming clubless in the summer of 2023 and announcing his retirement a few months later – until TuS Bövinghausen got in touch in January.