The first half of the season in the Oberliga Westfalen is in the bag. An overview of the players with the most minutes played so far.

The number of games played in the Oberliga Westfalen is somewhat disjointed. Of the 18 teams, only Sportfreunde Lotte, SV Schermbeck, TuS Bövinghausen and SpVgg Vreden have played the full 17 games in the first half of the season. The rest of the league still has up to four catch-up games to play in the coming year.

Nevertheless, it is worth taking a look at the long-running favourites of the first half of the season. What stands out in the data collected by transfermarkt.de is that only one player has played the full 90 minutes in 17 games so far, and two others in 16 games.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a goalkeeper. Tom Breuers from SpVgg Vreden stood between the posts for 1530 minutes. However, the next goalkeeper still has a few places to go in the industry portal’s ranking. There are two outfield players on the podium, also from SpVgg Vreden. Defender Denieck Nijland has only missed twelve minutes so far, directly behind him is his team-mate Maximilian Hinkelmann with 17 minutes not spent on the pitch.

The places behind them are also occupied by attacking players. These are Fatlum Elezi from Sportfreunde Lotte (20 minutes missed) and Burinyuy Nyuydine, another Lotterer (25 minutes missed). At 33, the top scorer in the Oberliga Westfalen, Timur Karagülmez from SV Schermbeck, is the oldest player to make it into the top ten (36 minutes missed).

But the wait for the next goalkeeper continues. Behind Karagülmez are Nico Lübke (Sportfreunde Lotte, 38 minutes missed) and Migel-Max Schmeling (TuS Bövinghausen, 76 minutes missed). However, the latter will not get any more minutes in the Dortmund jersey. Like the majority of the squad, he has also terminated his contract in Bövinghausen.

The ten perennial favorites of the Oberliga Westfalen

1. Tom Breuers (goalkeeper, SpVgg Vreden): 1530 minutes/1530 minutes

2. Danieck Nijland (defense, SpVgg Vreden): 1513/1530

3. Maximilian Hinkelmann (forward, SpVgg Vreden): 1510/1530

4. Fatlum Elezi (midfield, SF Lotte): 1510/1530

5. Burinyuy Nyuydine (forward, SF Lotte): 1505/1530

6. Timur Karagülmez (midfield, SV Schermbeck): 1494/1530

7. Nico Lübke (defense, SF Lotte): 1492/1530

8. Migel-Max Schmeling (defense, TuS Bövinghausen): 1454/1530

9. Joshua Mroß (goalkeeper, ASC 09 Dortmund): 1440/1440

10. Nico Eschhaus (goalkeeper, 1. FC Gievenbeck): 1440/1440

Data according to transfermarkt.de (as of December 20, 2023)