Second division team SC Paderborn has had a very good season so far – thanks in part to defender Felix Götze. The 26-year-old is the team’s unsung hero.

On the last day of the second division season, SC Paderborn were only seconds away from taking the lead in the table. SCP led 1-0 in the top game at Fortuna Düsseldorf until the 95th minute, when a curious scene occurred.

Defender Calvin Brackelmann headed a Düsseldorf cross unluckily into the back of his teammate Felix Götze’s head. From there, the ball rebounded into the bottom right corner for a flattering equalizer for Fortuna.

A small consolation prize: Paderborn at least defended second place in the table with the 1-1 draw. Of twelve games, the team of head coach Lukas Kwasniok has only lost once – a 3-0 defeat in Kaiserslautern. Otherwise, Paderborn has had a stable season and remained undefeated in away games in Cologne (2-1), Hamburg (2-2) and Düsseldorf (1-1).

A large part of this is thanks to defense chief Götze. The 26-year-old is the only player in the squad to have played in all 14 competitive games from the first to the last second.

His coach has already described the central defender as an “absolute machine.” Why Kwasniok thinks so highly of his most important defender is proven by the statistics from bundesliga.com.

Götze is strong in duels, accurate in passing and has a strong presence in the air

With a pass completion rate of 92.37 percent, Götze (a total of 939 touches of the ball in 12 games) is the second-placed player with the most accurate passing. Across the entire league, only seven players have a better passing rate. The Dortmund native is also among the 2nd Bundesliga’s elite when it comes to winning aerial duels, having already won 35 aerial duels in the air. He is also one of SCP’s most effective players on the ground, winning a total of 115 duels in his first twelve games.

Surprisingly, the newcomer is actually one of the most active players in the squad of the second division team. On average, he runs just over ten kilometers per game – and that as a central defender in a back three. Only Santiago Castaneda and captain Raphael Obermair run more.

These numbers show just how important Götze is for the promoted team. In the summer, after two years with Rot-Weiss Essen, he transferred to Paderborn for free. The 1.85-meter man played a total of 57 competitive games for RWE (4 goals, 2 assists). His departure could not be compensated for at Hafenstraße.