The U17s of Rot Weiß Oberhausen have done it. As champions of the Niederrheinliga, the team makes it back into the B-Junioren Bundesliga West.

The U17s of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen are champions of the Niederrheinliga. The only real rival, the U17s from TSV Meerbusch, were already seven points behind in the championship round before this matchday, with three games still to be played. And so it was already clear before RWO’s game against ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen: if Oberhausen won, promotion was in the bag.

And that was achieved with aplomb. Marvin Nunnendorf (54th) opened the scoring, Noah Alexander Karschti (63rd) and Cankoray Mutlu (70th) made the promotion perfect.

“We are super happy, super relieved that we have now made it to the finish line,” explained champion coach Ken Asaeda. He also said it was important for him to specifically mention his co-coach, Ismail Jaroui: “We’re doing this together.”

Last year, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen’s U17s narrowly missed out on promotion, missing out on MSV Duisburg by one point. This season it is done. The U17s will play in the Bundesliga again next season.

RWO returns to Oberhausen after seven years

“Last year, no one really expected us to be up there until the end. But then when you’re one point short and you’re powerless on the last matchday because there’s no game, you’re even more pleased,” admits an overjoyed Asaeda.

The joy will be great throughout the club, because for the first time since the 2015/16 season, RWO’s U17s are playing in the highest division again. Asaeda confirms this: “Of course it’s nice for the club again after such a long time. We can finally field an U17 team in this league again. I think we are basically on the right track.”

While the decision has been made in the championship round, there has been no suspense in the relegation round of the U17 Lower Rhine League for some time. The relegations have been decided for some time now. SG Unterrath, TuRU Düsseldorf, VfB Hilden and SF Baumberg have been relegated.