Second league for Duisburg and Aue, plus a Europa League goal for Schalke: Andreas Wiegel should make Sportfreunde Lotte stronger on the right side.
Andreas Wiegel played for Essen last season.
IMAGO/Markus Endberg
The Sportfreunde Lotte have once again strengthened their squad: On Tuesday evening, the newcomer presented a new man for the right defensive side in Andreas Wiegel. The 33-year-old was most recently under contract with Rot-Weiss Essen until the summer.
The veteran brings experience to the Sportfreunde: he played 138 games in the third division for Essen, MSV Duisburg and Rot-Weiß Erfurt. There were also 55 second division appearances for Duisburg and Erzgebirge Aue. He was also active 37 times in the Jupiter Pro League, Belgium’s upper house. Another career highlight for the Paderborn native was a stint in the Europa League for FC Schalke 04 in the 2011/12 season, when he scored in a 3-0 win over Maccabi Haifa.
“This closes the circle”
After three months of being without a club, he is now heading to the Regionalliga West, which he already knows from his time in the Schalke reserves: “It’s great that things are starting again now. I’ll try as best as I can to help the team,” explains the 33-year-old. Year-old who will meet Kevin Holzweiler, an actor from their time together in Essen. And Fabian Lübbers is also no stranger to Wiegel, as he played with the current Sportfreunde coach in the SC Paderborn youth team. “Lotte has really great guys on the team. I want to fit in seamlessly,” said Wiegel.
“He was considered one of the greatest talents in the area at the time, I have always followed his career,” says Lübbers himself, who characterizes Wiegel as an “absolutely dynamic player with a mentality”: “Now there was an opportunity to get him excited about the sports fans The circle has now come full circle!”
