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 fragmented. Of the 18 teams, only Sportfreunde Lotte, SV Schermbeck, TuS Bövinghausen and SpVgg Vreden have played the full 17 first-half games so far. The rest of the league will have to play up to four catch-up games in the coming year.

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

Unsurprisingly, this is a goalkeeper. Tom Breuers of SpVgg Vreden spent 1530 minutes between the posts. But it takes a few places further to find the next goalkeeper in the industry portal’s lineup. The top two players are field players, also from SpVgg Vreden. Defender Denieck Nijland has only missed 12 minutes so far, with his teammate Maximilian Hinkelmann just behind him with 17 minutes not spent on the pitch.

The players further down the list are also mostly offensive players. These are Fatlum Elezi from Sportfreunde Lotte (20 minutes missed) and Burinyuy Nyuydine, another Lotterer (25 minutes missed). The top scorer in the Oberliga Westfalen, Timur Karagülmez from SV Schermbeck, is the oldest player in the top ten, at 33 years old (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 be playing in a Dortmund jersey for much longer. Like a large part of the squad, he has also terminated his contract in Bövinghausen.

The ten long-running players in 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 (midfielder, SF Lotte): 1510/1530

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

6. Timur Karagülmez (midfielder, 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