SG Wattenscheid 09

SG Wattenscheid 09 spend the 2026/27 season back in the Regionalliga West. They earned the place after climbing out of the Oberliga Westfalen, where they had been placed after an insolvency filing on 23 October 2019 forced them down for the 2020/21 season.

The club had been that low before. Relegation to the Oberliga Westfalen in 2004 was followed by a title there in 2005. Those years came after a rise that owed much to one man: Klaus Steilmann backed the club through the 1970s and 80s, and when he withdrew in the mid-1990s, decline followed. Relegation came in 1999.

The high point was short. Wattenscheid finished second in the 2. Bundesliga in 1989/90 and went up, and they stayed in the top flight until 1994. The press called them the "Klub der Stunde", the Club of the Hour. Uwe Tschiskale topped that division's scoring list in 1988/89, and Maurice Banach did the same the next season. Banach died in 1991, while the club was still in the Bundesliga. In 1991/92 the club played home games at the Ruhrstadion because the Lohrheidestadion was being renovated.

Their rivals are neighbours. VfL Bochum share the city, and the meetings between the two clubs are the Stadtderby. Wattenscheid is a district of Bochum, so the fixture is played within one municipality.

The youth side has produced a name known well beyond the Ruhr. Leroy Sané played for the club from the age of five to nine before moving to Schalke 04.

The Lohrheidestadion, where the club has played since 1966, finished a major rebuild in July 2025. Capacity is now 16,387, up from 16,233, with 8,020 seats and 8,367 standing places.