He is already one of the longest-serving players at Rot-Weiss Essen and you can always rely on him: Oguzhan Kefkir. He has fought his way back into the first eleven.
“I’ve known ‘Ötzi’ for a long time and know what I have in him.” Christoph Dabrowski, coach of Rot-Weiss Essen, has used this sentence quite often during his RWE tenure. Namely, whenever he was asked about Oguzhan Kefkir.
It is a well-known fact that Dabrowski and Kefkir were once teammates at VfL Bochum. The Essen coach knew the talented Kefkir and now he has also met the experienced Kefkir, who is now a family man.
The 31-year-old attacking player proved how important he is for the team in the last few weeks before the international break. Whether as a right-back against Ingolstadt (2:2) or on the left wing against Saarbrücken (1:0): Kefkir can be relied on. “My motto is always the same: When I play, I want to show that ‘Ötzi’ is on the pitch. I always want to help the team, get the spectators involved. I always give full throttle: regardless of whether I play from the start or am substituted and also regardless of which position I am needed in,” emphasises Kefkir, who has been under contract at Hafenstraße since summer 2019.
However, he did not like the fact that he had to make do with the bench at the start of the third division as a key member of the promotion team, including a strong summer preparation. “Of course I was disappointed. I didn’t expect it, I have to admit. But that’s how it is when you play in a strong team. Everyone is needed during the season. I kept working hard and got my chances and took them,” he says.
We have to score without end so that we are above the line in the mid-November break, which is unusually long for all of us – in the best case still so that we have given ourselves some breathing space.
Oguzhan Kefkir
The fact that RWE had problems at the start of the new series came as less of a surprise to Kefkir. He knows the 3rd League from his Uerdingen and Dortmund days. “Anyone who thought it would be like the last few years in the Regionalliga has little idea of the 3rd Division. Starting with precision, then we can talk about physicality or even speed: In the 3rd League everything is different, better, a level higher. We all had to get used to it, get to know the league,” he explains.
At least in the stadium on Hafenstraße, RWE has arrived in the 3rd Division. This was underlined by the draw against Ingolstadt and the victories over Aue and Saarbrücken. Now it’s time to prove it away from home.
Kefkir: “That’s how I see it too: We now have to play Wehen Wiesbaden and Freiburg. We want to score points there and take some home with us. Then comes Dresden, then we have a few more games until the World Cup break. We have to score without end so that we are above the line during the break in mid-November, which is unusually long for all of us – in the best case so that we have gained some breathing space. “