In his Europa League debut, former RWE keeper Hendrik Bonmann kept a clean sheet and helped his team to its first point.

October 3, 2024 will probably remain a special day for Hendrik Bonmann forever. At the start of the Europa League group stage, the 30-year-old goalkeeper was still on the substitute bench for Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad, but in the away game against Viktoria Pilsen on match day 2, Bonmann was allowed to guard the goal.

In his debut, the goalkeeper, born in Essen in 1994, kept his goal shut and thus captured the first point for his club. Bonmann started out at Fortuna Bredeney before the FC Schalke 04 youth academy took notice of him.

After five years at Schalke, he then moved to the youth team of Rot-Weiss Essen. He made his senior debut in his home town in 2012, with a 2-1 home win over Rot-Weiß Oberhausen the perfect start.

After six games in the Regionalliga West, he then went abroad for the first time via Borussia Dortmund II, 1860 Munich and Würzburger Kickers. Bonmann has also been able to show himself internationally with Wolfsberger AC, although the Austrians failed in their Conference League qualification against Molde FK.

Bonmann only moved to Bulgaria in the summer. In Razgrad, he is competing with 34-year-old Dutchman Sergio Padt for the number one spot. At the moment, the two are almost on a par and also rotate in the league. While Padt has been between the posts in twelve games, Bonmann has eight competitive appearances under his belt.

In addition to four appearances in the domestic league, he was also the keeper in the bitter exit in the Champions League qualifiers. After Razgrad had initially beaten Dinamo Batumi and then eliminated Dinamo Minsk in round two, it also looked good against Qarabag Agdam for a long time. Bonmann and his teammates laid the foundation for a 2-1 away win in Azerbaijan, but they failed in the second leg when they completely fell apart in extra time and conceded four more goals. Razgrad had to go into the Europa League with a 2-7 defeat.

The Bulgarians and their goalkeeper from Essen will continue their campaign in the Europa League on October 21 at RSC Anderlecht in Belgium. On the hunt for their first group-stage win, Bonmann will hopefully be joined by friends and family from back home for another special evening on the big stage.