Quote from MrPerfect
And Werder is left empty-handed. Werder loaned the player to Freiburg with a purchase option of €600, which Freiburg exercised when Düsseldorf wanted the player, even though they already had a higher market value, and sold him straight away to Düsseldorf.
Werder’s youth department seems to have overlooked a talent once again.
He wasn’t overlooked, the Werder amateurs were too bad and didn’t make sense for him, they didn’t see him playing with the pros and so they loaned him out, the loan to Freiburg’s second team was actually extended again after a year (so 2 years in the third division), then the knockout was drawn and the well-known happened. You can argue about why the knockout was the way it was but here too, 900,000 is a good basic transfer fee for a player who has played in the third division at most up to that point, no idea whether we got any bonuses from the sale to Düsseldorf or whether all possible bonuses went down the drain with the sale.
Ultimately, Engelhardt is a prime example of how big the difference can be when a U23 plays in League 3 or 4 (in our case, League 5). One can only hope that at some point a sensible league reform will be implemented that ensures that every 2 teams can play in League 4 at most (if this remains multi-track) or that the U23 teams are moved to their own leagues. (As in England, but I’m personally not a huge fan of that)
Otherwise there will always be cases like this, it is a huge advantage if your own U23 plays in League 3, the 3rd League is certainly attractive for talented players because it is a real professional league and the quality is not much weaker than the 2nd League.
I wish him all the best on his adventure in Italy.
