It happens that quickly: Lukas Raeder announced the end of his career in November 2023. In January 2024, that is no longer an issue. He will play in the top division in future.

Lukas Raeder last played in goal for the victorious Rot-Weiss Essen team at the NRW Traditionsmasters in Mülheim. And the 30-year-old has probably tasted blood again.

Because in November 2023, he announced his early retirement at the age of 29. “I’ve decided to end my career. I hardly played at all in Duisburg at the end and thought a lot about whether I wanted to carry on. There were talks, including with clubs from abroad. But nothing convinced me one hundred percent,” he told “Sport Bild” at the time.

Now the resignation from the resignation follows: TuS Bövinghausen was able to convince the former goalkeeper, who has already played for Rot-Weiss Essen, MSV Duisburg, FC Schalke 04 and FC Bayern Munich. Raeder will make his TuS debut on Friday (January 19, 2024, 7 p.m.). The program includes a test match against regional league team Rot Weiss Ahlen at Provinzialstraße.

“We’re delighted that this has worked out. Lukas is an excellent goalkeeper who simply has the time for soccer again and is naturally also very keen to play. He signed with us before the test match and is now a TuS Bövinghausen player,” TuS boss Ajan Dzaferoski told Forecasting.

Bövinghausen now has a total of around 20 players under contract. “The big shake-up has gone well. We were able to get rid of the guys who were very expensive and have signed many young and hungry talents instead. I’m confident that we’ll stay in the league. And with Lukas, the young team now also has a fantastic back-up in goal,” explains Dzaferoski.

Lukas Raeder’s CV includes the German championship and DFB Cup victory

Raeder is no stranger to his home town of Essen. The 1.94-metre goalkeeper played as a youth at Hafenstraße before moving to FC Schalke 04’s A-Youth and becoming German A-Youth champion with the Royal Blues.

The Essen native’s career really took off in the summer of 2012. Raeder was signed by FC Bayern Munich. Raeder was able to learn from none other than Manuel Neuer between 2012 and 2014. He made his Bundesliga debut for FC Bayern on April 12, 2014 against Borussia Dortmund. Four days later, he stood between the posts in the semi-final of the DFB Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt (5:1). Since then, he has won a German championship and the DFB Cup on his CV.

He left Bayern for Portugal in the summer of 2014. Raeder spent three years at Vitória Setúbal before moving on to Bradford City in England. After a year on the island, he returned to his native Essen in July 2018.

He spent the 2018/2019 season under contract with RWE again before moving to VfB Lübeck after twelve months. After two years in northern Germany, he sought his fortune far away again – this time in Bulgaria. Raeder’s next stop in the 2021/2022 series was Lokomotive Plovdiv. A year later, he was back in the Ruhr region and signed with MSV Duisburg for a year before becoming clubless in the summer of 2023 and announcing the end of his career a few months later – until TuS Bövinghausen contacted him in January