Paderborn has been on a remarkable journey over the last six years. They won promotion to the Bundesliga in 2013/14 before suffering the indignity of back to back relegations to fall to 3.Liga. An 18th placed finish in 2016/17 suggested it would be a long way back to the top for them but successive promotions have brought them back to the Bundesliga this season.

Transfer Business Overview

Paderborn has had a busy summer but there hasn’t been much business that will have made many headlines around Germany.

Rifet Kapic is the only player that they spent money on with Grasshoppers receiving €100,000. The rest of their incoming players were on free transfers or loans. The new arrivals are Luca Kilian, Streli Mamba, Johannes Dorfler, Jan-Luca Rumpf, Marcel Hilssner, Cauly, Gerrit Holtmann, Jannik Huth and Laurent Jans. Justin Reineke has also been promoted from the U19 squad.

Paderborn managed to bring in €5 million with Philipp Klement and Bernard Tekpetey joining Stuttgart and Schalke respectively for €2.5 million each. The other players leaving the club are Lukas Boeder, Sergio Gucciardo, Mohammed Kamara, Felix Herzenbruch, Julius Duker, Leon Fesser, Sascha Heil, Oliver Schindler, Felix Drinkuth, Phillip Tietz and Luca Pfeiffer.

Manager

Steffen Baumgart, who is most famous for his time as a player with Hansa Rostock, took charge of Paderborn in 2017. In his two full seasons in charge of the side, he has led them to promotion. Sometimes successive promotions can leave a club with too difficult a task to get their players ready for the top flight but that’s the task Baumgart faces and he will undoubtedly give it his best shot.

Player to Watch

The star man is Sebastian Vasiliadis. He joined the club last summer from VFR Aalen and was vital scoring six goals and assisting on 10 from midfield. Vasiliadis was born in Germany but is of Greek descent and at 21-years-old if he can continue his form into the top flight it’s likely that he will receive an international call-up from one of the two countries he is eligible to represent.

One for the Future

Luca Kilian has arrived from Borussia Dortmund II. The 19-year-old centre back has experience with their U19 and second team. He has also participated in the UEFA Youth League. While he is primarily a centre-back, he has also featured at both right and left-back as well as in midfield.

Predicted Finish

The target is 15th but have they done enough to secure it? The short answer is probably not. There’s an old saying in football that if you sign players from the lower leagues, you’ll end up in the lower leagues and Paderborn have done the first part of that. It’ll be hard for them to stay up and they should maybe keep one eye on building to avoid the double relegation that followed their last Bundesliga appearance.

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