At Westfalia Herne, young goalkeeper Daniel Dudek has been catching the eye. He is the number one keeper in both the Westphalia League and the Westphalia Cup.

Westfalia Herne lost 0-5 to Arminia Bielefeld at the end of the quarter-final match in the Westphalia Cup. Goalkeeper Daniel Dudek was in the spotlight several times.

No, it wasn’t his fault that the hosts lost to Arminia Bielefeld, who play three leagues higher. In fact, it was thanks to the Westfalia goalkeeper that the game wasn’t over earlier – and that the score wasn’t even higher.

Dudek’s career is an interesting one: trained in the youth teams of Rot-Weiss Essen and Borussia Dortmund, he failed to make the leap into professional football and ended up at Westfalia Herne on loan via Wattenscheid 09.

There, he was able to establish himself from the middle of the season, something he failed to do at Wattenscheid in the 2023/24 season. He only played in five league games for SGW. So he returned to Herne for the current season, where he has since established himself as the number one goalkeeper and was consequently in goal against Bielefeld – in a game that did not start well at all.

Dudek made his first save in the third minute when he scraped a shot from Jeredy Hilterman, who was completely unmarked after a corner kick, out of the right corner. But just eight minutes later, he was powerless to prevent his only goal of the first half.

However, he kept a clean sheet until the break. After the break, the game rolled even more towards the Westfalia goal, so that even the goalkeeper, who was in brilliant form on the day, was unable to prevent a barrage of goals. Westfalia coach Christian Knappmann thinks highly of his goalkeeper. “Daniel played a huge game today, you have to say that.”

The training he has received at the big clubs and his real talent will certainly ensure that he makes his way to the top.

Christian Knappmann

So where could the journey take the young goalkeeper? “You have to remember that the boy is only 20 years old. The training he has received at big clubs and his real talent will certainly ensure that he makes his way to the top,” says Knappmann, confident about his future.

Dudek has his place as number one in the Herne goal absolutely secure, as Knappmann emphasizes: “We didn’t need the game against Arminia Bielefeld to know what we have in Daniel Dudek.”