On August 04, the upcoming third league season starts for Rot-Weiss Essen. It is now clear who will lead the team onto the field as captain.

As a conclusion after the six-day training camp in Wesendorf, Christoph Dabrowski, coach of Rot-Weiss Essen, said: “I wanted to set a stimulus in team development, which is why we also did a team-building measure on two days each. The topics of hierarchy, captain, and team council were also on the agenda. I’ll be talking about that in detail next week.”

No sooner said than done: this Thursday, Rot-Weiss Essen announced these decisions. It is not a big surprise that Felix Bastians will also wear the captain’s armband in the 2023/24 season. The 35-year-old defender has already led the Rot-Weiss onto the pitch as captain since the departure of Daniel Heber in January 2023.

Felix Bastians moved to Hafenstrasse in the summer of 2021 and now has 61 competitive appearances for RWE, in which he scored ten goals himself and set up two others.

The former junior international already gained experience in the 1st Bundesliga with SC Freiburg and Hertha BSC. In his second league days, the veteran was already captain at VfL Bochum.

He has an open ear for each of his teammates and loosens the atmosphere at the right moments. There is no reason to make a change at the captain position – the team also confirmed this impression to us in an open exchange during training camp.

Christoph Dabrowski on Felix Bastians.

“Felix leads the way as our most experienced player, both athletically and in terms of character. He has a sympathetic ear for each of his teammates and loosens up the atmosphere at the right moments. There is no reason to make a change in the captain’s position – this impression was also confirmed to us by the team in an open exchange during the training camp,” Dabrowski explained his decision.

Bastians’ deputy and thus co-captain will henceforth be regular keeper Jakob Golz. Andreas Wiegel, Vinko Šapina and Thomas Eisfeld complete the team council.