Fortuna Düsseldorf II

Julian Brandt spent a season here on loan from Borussia Dortmund; Timo Horn did the same on loan from 1. FC Köln, and Joel Pohjanpalo passed through a year later.

As a reserve team it carries no separate legal identity and no founding date of its own beyond the parent club's, 5 May 1895. Honours are correspondingly rare rather than absent: the club won the Deutscher Amateurmeister in 1977, with Werner Albrecht scoring the goal that beat SV Sandhausen in the final, and added the Niederrheinmeister title the same year. A second title followed in 2003–04, when the team won the Oberliga Nordrhein and went up to the Regionalliga Nord.

Matches against sides such as MSV Duisburg II or Borussia Mönchengladbach II are known locally as Regionalliga-Derbys. The reserve side shares the Paul-Janes-Stadion with the senior team and has spent recent seasons in the Regionalliga West, including 2024/25 and 2025/26.

That run ends by consequence rather than choice: German rules bar the reserve sides of third-division clubs from the fourth tier, so Fortuna Düsseldorf II drops down after the first team's relegation from the 2. Bundesliga to the 3. Liga for 2026/27.