District league football club VfB Speldorf has presented a new sporting director. The latter had only recently ended his career.

After relegation from the Landesliga, the year turned out well for VfB Speldorf. The team from Mülheim played a strong first half of the season in the Bezirksliga. With a nine-point lead, they are at the top of the table – anything less than relegation would be a big surprise.

And VfB is also making progress off the pitch. A new sporting director has been hired in Patrick Dertwinkel. He officially starts work at the beginning of January. It is a new challenge for the 29-year-old. In the first half of the season, he was still an active player for SpVg Schonnebeck in the top division and ended his career only a few weeks ago.

Dertwinkel succeeds Kevin aus der Wieschen, who remains loyal to the Speldorfer and has been promoted to sports director. “It was simply a matter of getting support. Because I also do board work, it was just a bit much in the last few years. You’re in some kind of talks every day,” says aus der Wieschen.

From now on, Dertwinkel will have his back. Dertwinkel, who was born in Düsseldorf, is not unprepared for the job: he has already completed correspondence courses in football management and in match analysis and scouting.

Dertwinkel also brings with him a wealth of experience from his playing days. The former Borussia Mönchengladbach youth player made 183 appearances in the Oberliga Niederrhein (41 goals, 41 assists) and 35 appearances in the Regionalliga West (four goals, two assists). He was under contract with Gladbach II, Malchower SV, ETB SW Essen, TuRU Düsseldorf, Jahn Hiesfeld, VfB Homberg, SSVg Velbert and in the last one and a half years with Schonnebeck.

Now Dertwinkel is turning over a new leaf. At VfB Speldorf he will work with coach Julien Schneider – his best man and teammate from his youth days.