The first time that he really appeared was in Sandhausen. Werder Bremen were 1: 2 behind in the game at the provincial club, the Bundesliga relegated threatened with the next embarrassment. Until Oscar Schönfelder got the ball on the left side in stoppage time and passed into the middle. Exactly on Niclas Füllkrug, who used the original for a late compensation. The embarrassment was averted, Bremen also a little happier. And someone who until then had only been under the radar at Werder played a decisive role in this. How did that feel? How already? Great, of course, says Schönfelder: “It was an overwhelming moment.”
Maybe Oscar Schönfelder will say about this moment that it was the starting shot for his Werder career. With a lot of delay, because only 16 months after his commitment, but in fact an important step for the 20-year-old seems to have been taken with the Sandhausen mission and the subsequent substitutions against FC St. Pauli and 1. FC Nürnberg. “I’m mega happy that I’m gradually getting my chances,” said the left winger in a media round, which for him is the first as a SV Werder player. He does it with a certain ease and joy, laughs a lot. But of course: there is also a look back at a time when dissatisfaction determined his life.
Schönfelder sums it up as a “difficult start”, which happened to him after his commitment in summer 2020. Werder brought him from the U19 of Mainz 05. But just arriving in Bremen, he sustained an ankle injury while training with the U23. Nothing terribly wild, but “the worst injury I’ve had so far,” explains Schönfelder. He was out for a few weeks, then felt his way with short appearances in the regional league. Then came the lockdown, the end of the season in league four, and Schönfelder was not yet good enough for the professionals. Which meant: he was forced to remain idle instead of advancing his career. “I was already very dissatisfied,” he admits in retrospect: “It was not always easy to deal with the situation.”
Friends and family would have helped him. He himself stayed tuned. With the success that it is gradually gaining importance for coach Markus Anfang. The substitutions in previous games show that Schönfelder has improved his standing. He is now substituted on when the coach wants to put more pressure on the left side. Not Eren Dinkci or Roger Assalé. “The page has to be played up and down. I brought Oscar because I wanted to have a left foot that hits flanks, ”said the beginning of the 20-year-old’s mission in Nuremberg. Schönfelder also confidently says: “I am the type who can get over speed and one-on-one situations. That can help the team in situations in which we are behind – like against Sandhausen with the assist. “
The previous playing minutes for Schönfelder add up to a very modest 42 minutes – that includes the three minutes in the DFB Cup against VfL Osnabrück, his premiere in the professional team. The young professional, who was born in Berlin but grew up in Frankfurt am Main, knows of course that he cannot be imagined. Which he doesn’t even want. Schönfelder seems well grounded when he says: “I came here a year ago with a lot of expectations, but then I was a bit disappointed. Now I feel comfortable here. I am very happy with how things have gone this season and hope that my playing time will increase steadily. “
The fact that, due to the switch to double leadership for a left winger like him, the chances of playing from the start could be an issue for Oscar Schönfelder, but it is not. If required, he would move closer to the chain of three. “I like this position. It’s fun to play up and down the left side, “he explains and asserts that he can do one thing as well as the other:” I feel just as comfortable there as in the top three. “
That he has a lot of competitors around him – from Leonardo Bittencourt to Romano Schmid to Dinkci and Assalé – does not shock Schönfelder. At least that’s what he says: “That only gives me extra motivation.”
And private? It is easy to imagine that it was not much fun as a 19-year-old to move alone to a new city and to be able to pursue exactly one leisure activity in the corona lockdown: sitting around. Schönfelder is now exploring the city. He can still do that without being recognized. Because just a few minutes of second division football does not increase the celebrity factor by leaps and bounds. Schönfelder grins and sees the potential for improvement: “Every now and then I am recognized on the street, but often it doesn’t happen. But I hope that I can leave a few good impressions on the pitch so that even more people can recognize me. ”
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