Under the guidance of Uwe Schubert, homegrown players have repeatedly made the leap to MSV Duisburg’s professional squad in the past. One youth team stands out in particular.

Ahmet Engin, Lukas Daschner, Julian Hettwer, Caspar Jander, and most recently Max Braune and Jan-Simon Symalla: The list of former MSV Duisburg youth players who have made the leap to professional soccer is long. Consequently, the long-standing work of Uwe Schubert, who has led and left a lasting mark on the youth academy for many years, is highly regarded at Westender Straße.

The only current U-19 player who has already gotten a taste of professional football is goalkeeper Jihan Masseling. The 17-year-old traveled to the training camp in the Netherlands this summer and played 30 minutes in the final friendly match in Sonsbeck.

This winter, however, no U19 player will be boarding the plane to Belek. “As things stand, that’s not planned,” head coach Dietmar Hirsch explained just last week. However, the ongoing injury woes could still cause a turnaround. Accordingly, it is not expected in the short term that any other talents are on the verge of making the leap to the professional squad.

Nevertheless, it is worth taking a closer look at the first half of the year for the four NLZ teams from the youth development program (U15 to U19):

The U19 team, coached by Marcus Jahn—a fixture in the U19 Bundesliga West from 2006 to 2024—has been playing in the newly created U19 DFB Youth League since the fall of 2024. In Group G of the preliminary round, the Zebras finished fifth with 13 points from twelve games—behind reigning champions 1. FC Köln as well as Mainz 05, Viktoria Köln, and Fortuna Düsseldorf. Starting in 2026, the battle to avoid relegation will begin in League B of the main round.

The U17 team finished third in their preliminary round group of the DFB Youth League, behind 1. FC Köln, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, and Borussia Mönchengladbach. They will also continue in Main Round B in the new year. The U15 team currently holds fifth place in the Regionalliga West, Division 1.

Coach Fabian Springob’s U16 team has been particularly successful: After winning the B-Junior Niederrheinliga championship in the summer, the team is also comfortably leading the standings of the newly created WDFV U16 Youth Cup for the current season. The youth teams from Mönchengladbach, Bochum, Cologne, Leverkusen, Schalke, Essen, and Dortmund trail far behind the newly crowned fall champions.

“We’ve gone 14 months without a loss across two seasons. That’s almost unheard of in youth soccer. Additionally, we’ve been able to guide 17 out of 18 players from various clubs into the U17 Bundesliga and, in some cases, even develop them into national team players. That’s worth far more than just the results,” Springob praises.

“Of course, we want to continue this process and these successes together beyond the summer,” adds the 31-year-old teacher from Solingen, who previously coached the U19 team at Wuppertaler SV and worked as an assistant coach under Daniel Berlinski at Rot Weiss Ahlen.

The development of the youth teams shows that MSV Duisburg continues to build on a stable foundation. While immediate breakthroughs to the very top are unlikely at the moment, in the long run, the next name of a homegrown Meiderich player on the professional roster is likely only a matter of time.