Moritz Stoppelkamp is one of seven summer departures from MSV Duisburg. He is still one of the five players without a new club. That could change soon.

At the end of May, MSV Duisburg announced that captain Moritz Stoppelkamp will no longer receive a new contract with the Zebras from 1 July 2023.

“Six seasons in Zebra stripes – and what a lot of them! You can’t get more dramatic than that. Moritz Stoppelkamp will take off the MSV jersey at the end of the current 2022/23 season after a lot of goals, tears, heart, passion, jubilation and emotions,” read a press release from MSV Duisburg.

The emotions have cooled down in the meantime and the tears of farewell have dried. MSV has almost completed its 2023/2024 squad and Stoppelkampf is now also close to signing with his new employer. One could also say: one of his former employers.

Because, as Forecasting has learned, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen is courting the services of the 36-year-old attacking player. In addition to the Kleeblättern, Oberhausen’s Regionalliga West rivals Alemannia Aachen are also said to have knocked on Stoppelkamp’s door. But Alemannia are said to have been turned down. Stoppelkamp, a family man who lives in Duisburg-Buchholz, favours a move to his former club.

Between 2008 and 2010, the young Stoppelkamp played 49 competitive games (nine goals, two assists) for RWO. Now he would strengthen coach Jörn Nowak’s team as an experienced leader. It would be a reunion. Before his time in Oberhausen, Stoppelkamp played together with Nowak at Rot-Weiß Erfurt. There he became a regular player for the first time under coach Pavel Dotchev in 2006/2007.

Moritz Stoppelkamp: Already with MSV as a young boy – later 196 competitive games in zebra stripes

Stoppelkamp first moved to Meiderich Spielverein at the age of ten – at that time from Viktoria Buchholz to MSV’s youth team. The attacking midfielder finally made the leap to professional with Rot-Weiss Essen.

After stints in Erfurt, Munich, Oberhausen, Hannover (where Stoppelkamp played five times for 96 in the Europa League, editor’s note), SC Paderborn (with the legendary 82-metre goal, editor’s note) and Karlsruhe, Stoppelkamp returned to Westender Straße in the summer of 2017.

Under the coaches Ilia Gruev, Torsten Lieberknecht, Gino Lettieri, Uwe Schubert, Pavel Dotchev, Hagen Schmidt and Torsten Ziegner, a total of 196 (65 goals, 54 assists) further competitive matches for the Spielverein followed.