Rot-Weiss Essen returns to paid football 15 years after being relegated to the second division. The euphoria is huge. Although the club tries to dwarf the ambitions and spends the league. But the club is everything but a normal climber.
The situation in the city of Essen is, well, euphoric. At least. And the place of greatest happiness can be pinpointed fairly precisely. Longitude: 6°58?33.82?E (6.976063), Latitude: 51°29?11.22??N (51.486449). At this location, at Hafenstraße 97A, the 3rd football league will experience its possibly, no, probably most powerful and loudest premiere this Saturday afternoon (from 2 p.m.). Because Rot-Weiss Essen is back in professional football. The German champion from 1955 has freed himself from the mud of the pig league and is more than ready to show the world how loud the pulse of the traditional giant can still beat. Essen was last in the third division in 2007/08, when the regional league was still the highest division below the 2. Bundesliga.
Almost 10,000 season tickets have been sold, and the number of members has climbed to 8,300. Even before the first whistle of the season has sounded – co-promoter Elversberg comes to visit – the old and proud industrial city absorbs everything the club has to tell with boundless greed. It’s not that much. At least not in sport. RWE trusts its promotion heroes in the first guest appearance in the 3rd division. The squad was strengthened only sporadically. It’s definitely not a risk. Because even in the Regionalliga West, the team looked like an all-star team. Sought-after players like Daniel Heber, Niklas Tarnat and Isaiah Young stayed, as did the veterans Felix Bastians, Ouzghan Kefkir, Thomas Eisfeld and goal-phenomenon Simon Engelmann.
In addition, there were Ron Berlinski (forward) and Björn Rother (midfield), two more experienced players from the 3rd and 2nd leagues and a few exciting talents. Moritz Römling, for example, from VfL Bochum. Or Lawrence Ennali from Hannover 96. The new coach, Christoph Dabrowski, comes from there. It is possible that there are questions at this point. Why are the Esseners keeping their squad but replacing the coach? Well, the story is actually curious. It’s a story of panic and courage. Christian Neidhart was dismissed from office two games before the end of last season. The most successful coach in club history in terms of points. He scored 2.29 points on average, more than Julian Nagelsmann in his debut season at Bayern. Crazy.
But in Essen they felt that the GAU was closer than the ascent. It wasn’t popular, but it was successful. After all, conspiracy myths had already been quietly told, which essentially revolve around the fact that a higher, dark power wants to prevent the giant from resurrecting. The truth was different: the bosses sensed that a new “impulse” was needed to wake up the regional league star ensemble in order to avoid a déjà vu with the previous year. At that time, the U23s from Borussia Dortmund emerged victorious from a crazy duel (93 to 90 points). While Essen cried collectively.
And they wanted this success. They really wanted that. Don’t fail again. 15 years after relegation from the 2nd Bundesliga, the longing for big football was so gigantic that all means were sacred. Forgotten by now anyway. Like everything that the fans had almost eaten up in the second half of the season. The fatal firecracker throw in the game against archrival and main competitor Preussen Münster, all those games that suddenly couldn’t be won anymore, the painful beating up in the semi-finals in the Niederrheinpokal against Wuppertaler SV. The two antics about ousted captains were also forgotten.
Now food is back. The cult club. In a league full of cult clubs. Dynamo Dresden rushes down from above. 1860 Munich is fighting to return to the second division. Waldhof Mannheim has ambitions, 1. FC Saarbrücken was good for a long time last season. MSV Duisburg is fighting for stability, as is SV Meppen. None of this matters to RWE, it still sounds like music to the ears. Because it no longer sounds provincial, it sounds like a big stage.
And that’s what the 14,000 expected fans in the ecstatic temple of Hafenstrasse will definitely bring to the promoted team at their first home game in the 3rd division. “It’s pure madness what’s happening around the club right now. It’s all the more important that we continue to work in a focused and meticulous manner. Then I’m convinced that we can have a good season,” says sports director Jörn Nowak in “Reviersport”. For the club, staying up in the league is the goal: “I hope that the environment will maintain the euphoria for a long time and give the team confidence even in the event of possible setbacks. They should have worked for that.”
The new coach had already internalized the pot mentality even before signing the contract. Between 2006 and 2013 he played for regional rivals VfL Bochum, a few A40 trips away. There, the defensive midfielder was a fan favorite because he was a toiler. One of them. One as they love him. “I want to play emotional, active and aggressive football with my team and inspire the fans,” he says. But he also says: “We want to work hard and have a stable season.” It is the realistic scenario for “cultural assets worth protecting since 1907”.
But Rot-Weiss Essen is a club of feelings, not harsh realities. Rot-Weiss Essen is a symbiosis of love and suffering. An eternal up and down. For a long time the “down” dominated, now the “up” should take over. Despite their modesty, they are already dreaming of better times in their surroundings. “The path has only just begun,” Nowak said after the ascent. He is full of euphoria. “Currently, Rot-Weiss Essen could also offer 500 tickets to watch the players have dinner in a pizzeria in Bergeborbeck. After 15 minutes they would all be gone. It’s a subtle madness,” writes Twitter user @Catenaccio_07 . And he’s very likely right about that. The situation in the city of Essen is, well, euphoric. At least.
