In the series “My first place”, prominent soccer players (inside) return to their roots. This time goalkeeper Michael Esser to VfR Rauxel 08.
One soccer, two worlds: here, the rather rocked-out sports field on Vörder Straße, home of the C-county league team VfR Rauxel 08; there, the glittering Champions League with its dazzling arenas and billion-dollar revenues.
Michael Esser feels right at home here, on both sides. The VfL Bochum goalkeeper is a Castrop-Rauxel boy. This is where he likes to return. He played on this pitch in the F and E youth. Two of his teammates, like him Castrop-Rauxel boys, have also ended up in professional soccer:
Marc-André Kruska and Christopher Nöthe “With Marc in particular, you saw early on what he was capable of,” Esser notes. So did he, but it took a really long time for that to be properly promoted. VfL’s talent scouts had already lured him to Bochum as a youth player. But like so many goalkeepers at that age, Esser had a problem: “I was too small.”
Via Erkenschwick and Waltrop, he returned to VfB Habinghorst as an A-youth player, the club around the corner from Essers. “The coach of the first team, Dieter Beleijew, pulled me up immediately. That was the time for me to say that I want to play as high as possible,” says Esser.
Then VfL came along and I wanted to know.
Michael Esser
Yes well, district league, from there it’s still a long way to the professional business, one would think. But Esser’s ambition was awakened, and he returned to VfL Bochum in 2008 via Wacker Obercastrop, where he was once again coached by his father Uwe, and SV Sodingen (Landesliga). “Veselko Jovanovic wanted to get rid of me,” Esser grins.
Sodingen’s chairman at the time was eyeing the transfer fee that Esser’s sale to big neighbor Bochum would bring in. But Esser also had to wait another four years for his professional debut at VfL. On the last matchday of the 2011/12 season, it was May 6, 2012, Esser came on in the away game at FC Erzgebirge Aue. “The change was big, already from Sodingen to the U23 of VfL and then again from there to the pros. Everything went much faster, I even had side stitches once after a goal kick training session,” Esser recalls.
In any case, he was never so naïve as to put all his eggs in the soccer basket. After school, Esser trained as an electronics technician, “then VfL came along and I wanted to know what it was all about.