Rot-Weiss Essen are currently at training camp in Arnhem. While coach Christoph Dabrowski is making the players sweat, squad planner Marcus Steegmann is looking for new players.

First of all: Ahmet Arslan (1. FC Magdeburg) will neither join the current summer training camp of Rot-Weiss Essen nor will he be part of the RWE team afterwards. Marcus Steegmann emphasized this to the portal “liga3-online”.

“We can now put a stop to that. The transfer is beyond our means,” said the director of professional soccer at Rot-Weiss Essen.

The 30-year-old attacking player, who was top scorer in the 3rd division in 2022/2023, simply cannot reach an agreement with his employer Magdeburg to terminate his contract – Arslan is tied to the second division club until 2026. Forecasting reported.

For coach Christoph Dabrowski, this is a very bitter story. RS knows that the Essen coach had made an incredible effort for Arslan. The two even met for hours to talk during Dabrowski’s vacation in Mallorca and then maintained regular telephone contact. In the end, the Essen coach’s intensive efforts to win Arslan over will come to nothing. Even if he had reached an agreement with Rot-Weiss, he will not come. Because the ball is in the court of 1. FC Magdeburg – and the FCM does not want to get it out at the moment. As a result, RWE have given up on Arslan and are looking for alternatives

“We want to sign at least three more players – a winger, an attacking midfielder and a center forward. We still have enough time until the start of the season and the end of the transfer period and we are optimistic that we will be able to attract more good players,” reveals Steegmann.

Even though previous big names such as Felix Götze, Vinko Sapina, Marvin Obuz and Cedric Harenbrock have left RWE, Steegmann is anything but pessimistic about the coming season. He replies: “We are satisfied with the squad composition so far and are confident that we have replaced the departures well. Nevertheless, we still want and need to do something, especially in the offensive area.” It will be interesting to see who Rot-Weiss Essen will present in the coming days or weeks