VfL Bochum officially close Riemann chapter | OneFootball

As reported by Kicker, Manuel Riemann is heading to East Westphalia after his contract with long-term club VfL Bochum was terminated by mutual consent. A tumultuous chapter in the 36-year-old’s career thus finally comes to a close after seven turbulent months.

Riemann found himself unexpectedly dropped from Bochum’s squad during the promotion-relegation playoffs last season due to professional differences with the club that have not yet been fully revealed. He was subsequently banned from training with the first team.

The keeper took legal action earlier this autumn, filing a trade complaint with a local labor court. Before the matter could progress to arbitration, however, Riemann was permitted back on the senior team training pitch by newly appointed VfL head-coach Dieter Hecking.

He nevertheless never made Hecking’s match-day squad and ended up not logging a single minute of action for the club he’s represented since 2015. Riemann departs Bochum having made an impressive 290 appearances across all competitions for the Revierklub.

Riemann remained the first-choice Bundesliga keeper under the coaching regimes of Thomas Reis, Thomas Letsch, and (interim trainer) Heiko Butscher unitl Butscher dropped him for the two-legged playoff against Fortuna Düsseldorf last spring.

Paderborn sporting director Benjamin Weber made clear that he valued Riemann’s 98 top-flight appearances and hoped that they may also prove valuable to head-coach Lukas Kwasniok. Paderborn do not have a clear #1, with Markus Schubert and Pelle Boevink splitting the league starts.

“Manuel is another important piece of the puzzle for our ambitions in the second half of the season,” Weber noted in a club statement. “He is a very experienced goalkeeper and has all the attributes that are important to us in this vital position.”

GGFN | Peter Weis