Eight wins in a row, leaders in the 2nd Bundesliga – and a coach who is still looking for possible improvements. With Ralf Kettemann, Paderborn is experiencing the next successful “project” on the coaching bench.
When you listen to Paderborn’s coach Ralf Kettemann, you quickly realize that he is talking to a football expert who deals with the subject with maximum intensity. “When you’re in this role, you’re always a bit preoccupied with the delta of this game,” said Kettemann in the Sportschau interview after the 1-0 away win at SC Magdeburg.
The “Delta” is a letter of the Greek alphabet and stands for difference. In Kettemann’s case, what was meant was the difference between his team’s performance and what they had imagined before the game against the bottom of the table. Or, as Kettemann puts it: “What would actually have been possible in terms of performance – and why didn’t it work?”
Unusually lucky victory for Paderborn
Kettemann was not satisfied with the shape of the delta; his team was not sufficiently dominant against Magdeburg. Paderborn won for the eighth time in a row, extending the club record and defending their lead in the table – and yet Kettemann reflected soberly on the 90 minutes on the Elbe: “Magdeburg was on the trigger, we won easily and happily.”
In fact, the good Magdeburgers would have deserved a point with 18:12 shots on goal and 56% ball possession. And yet it was an atypical game in a season in which the East Westphalians are usually completely convincing; Paderborn has never started a second division season so well. The SCP scores 2.27 expected goals per game and thus leads the league. Defensively, they only allow 1.17 expected goals, the second best value of all 18 teams. A powerful offense paired with a stable defense – Paderborn’s lead in the league table is no coincidence.
Kettemann: “My job is balance”
Kettemann doesn’t really seem surprised given Paderborn’s strong start to the season. “If you look at it from the outside, I would also think: What does that do to them? Wow, that’s awesome!” said the 39-year-old, who was signed by the Karlsruher SC second team before the start of the season. But he hardly feels the pressure himself; rather, the content is always in his head: “My job is to keep a balance, to classify the games correctly. It’s a hard fight every week.”
In love with detail: Paderborn’s coach Ralf Kettemann in a thinking pose
In Kettemann, the sporting director, Benjamin Weber, who has since moved to FC Augsburg, has undoubtedly landed a real coup. The Crailsheimer, who was probably only known to real experts until he was hired by SCP, has formed a real top team from the youngest squad in the league (average number of players used) and has clearly distanced himself from significantly financially stronger teams such as Hertha BSC and VfL Bochum.
Next successful Trainer project in Paderborn
“It is a project, as always in Paderborn,” said SCP President Thomas Sagel in May when the Kettemann commitment was announced. What Sagel meant by that: In Paderborn they don’t bring in “ready-made” coaches, but trainers in whom they see development potential – similar to player transfers. The “project” was successful, and not for the first time: Steffen Baumgart (2017 – 2021) and most recently Lukas Kwasniok (2021 – 2025) developed into top coaches during their time at Pader, both of whom are currently working successfully in the Bundesliga.
Successful SCP trainers: Lukas Kwasniok (l.) and Steffen Baumgart
In particular, Kwasniok’s departure to 1. FC Köln could have been a stumbling block for the SCP, especially because alongside Kwasniok, top performers such as Aaron Zehnter (4.5 million, to Wolfsburg) and Ilyas Ansah (4 million, to Union) left the club. Within a very short time, Kettemann formed a real unit out of the young team.
Goal scorer Bilbija, top talents in the center
Established forces like Filip Bilbija (already eight goals this season) or Raphael Obermair are playing better than ever before, and the extremely talented central midfield around Santiago Castaneda (20 years old), Mika Baur (21) and Luis Engelns (18) is developing splendidly. New additions such as center forward Steffen Tigges (came from Cologne) and goalkeeper Dennis Seimen (on loan from Stuttgart) fit seamlessly into a functioning unit.
And so hope is growing in the area that Paderborn could be promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in six years. Ninth, seventh, sixth, seventh, fourth – in recent years the SCP has been extremely consistent, always producing a powerful team from the field, but without taking the final step towards promotion.
Remaining program for 2025: The top teams in the league are waiting
This year, however, with nine wins from eleven games at the moment, the big hit seems possible. In the games still to be played in 2025, a maximum of difficult opponents await the front runner: In the home games, the opponents are Hannover (fifth in the table), Elversberg (3rd) and Darmstadt (4th), while away from home the SCP has to play Schalke (2nd) and KSC (6th). These could be crucial weeks on the way to possible promotion to the Bundesliga.
| 11/22/2025 | Saturday, 1 p.m | Hannover 96 (H) |
|---|---|---|
November 28, 2025 | Friday, 6:30 p.m | Schalke 04 (A) |
12/06/2025 | Saturday, 1 p.m | SV Elversberg (H) |
12/13/2025 | Saturday, 1 p.m | Karlsruher SC (A) |
12/19/2025 | Friday, 6:30 p.m | Darmstadt 98 (H) |
Kettemann, a very reflective, sober coach analyst, doesn’t want to talk much about possible promotion ideas yet. “It’s beautiful, it’s great, it feels good,” admits Kettemann: “The flow is there, it’s working.” But there are words of warning immediately afterwards: “But the momentum doesn’t come for free, it’s not like you wake up in the morning and get it for free. You have to do a little something for it.”
