VfB Bottrop will lose its best player at the end of the season. Raphael Steinmetz announced his departure this week.

These are not good weeks for VfB Bottrop: The winter champion of Landesliga Group 2 in the Lower Rhine region is in the midst of a sporting crisis and has been waiting for a win in the league for six games. With eleven matchdays remaining in the season, they trail first place by five points.

And personnel planning is also stalling. Only three players from the current squad have committed to the new 2026/2027 season. According to RS information, many players are reportedly looking to switch clubs. Olcay Yilmaz, for instance, is in negotiations with Rhenania Bottrop. Alessandro Falcone is also being courted by several clubs, such as Blau-Weiß Mintard—the same goes for Nico Petritt.

VfB Bottrop’s best player is now officially announcing his departure. “I will be leaving the club and am looking for a new challenge after two years at VfB,” Raphael Steinmetz told Forecasting. Just this week, the 31-year-old former pro paved the way for VfB to reach the district cup final. Bottrop won 4-0 at Sterkrade-Nord, with Steinmetz scoring a hat trick.

It is not yet clear where the former player for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Wuppertaler SV will end up. According to Forecasting, however, Blau-Weiß Mintard is the favorite to sign him. “They’re interested. But I haven’t made a decision yet,” emphasizes Steinmetz, who lives in Mülheim. The A-League clubs 1. FC Hirschkamp and VfL Grafenwald are also interested in Steinmetz.

We’ll see where my path ultimately leads. For now, I want to focus on the remaining eleven league games with VfB Bottrop and the district cup final. I want to say goodbye here after two years with one or two successes

Raphael Steinmetz

The striker still needs to figure out for himself what he wants to do in the future: just play, or also stand on the sidelines? Because one thing is clear: if Steinmetz moves to Mintard, for example, then it will continue to be all about scoring goals for him. Successful coach Marco Guglielmi is on the sidelines there. It would be different in the case of 1. FC Hirschkamp. At the Kreisliga A league leaders, Steinmetz is reportedly being considered as a player-coach.

Steinmetz, who has scored 35 goals and provided 36 assists in 57 games for VfB Bottrop, explains: “We’ll see where my path ultimately leads. For now, I want to focus on the remaining eleven league games with VfB Bottrop and the district cup final. After two years here, I want to say goodbye with one or two successes.”