Same hair, same nickname, same job: Dresden meets Fürth in a ginger derby

Sometimes coincidence goes completely overboard. When Dynamo Dresden face Greuther Fürth in a 2. Bundesliga (Germany's second division) relegation clash, two almost identical midfielders will meet on the pitch.

On one side: Paul Will (27), who used to play for Dynamo. On the other: Robert Wagner (23), the man who followed him into Dresden's midfield.

What do they have in common?

Quite a lot. Both are defensive midfielders who win the ball back. Both have played for both clubs. Both have surnames starting with W. And both have red hair.

That last part has earned them the same nickname: Ed, after singer Ed Sheeran. Will says teammates in Dresden, the "Freiburg gang" around Claudio Kammerknecht, sometimes called him that. "More for fun, when they wanted to tease me," he says. Wagner says he has heard it at every club and finds it quite funny.

Will jokes that his hair is shorter now, "basically a buzz cut", so Wagner is closer to the original.

Two similar career paths

The parallels go beyond looks. Both joined their clubs in winter, when those sides were bottom or second from bottom. Both helped avoid the drop to the 3. Liga (third tier).

Fürth did it the hard way. They beat Düsseldorf 3:0 on the final day, then won the relegation play-off against Essen (0:1, 2:0). Both players stayed at their loan clubs afterwards.

Will says his coach Heiko Vogel trusted him blindly after a cruciate ligament injury. Wagner had a similar experience with Dynamo coach Thomas Stamm.

Will is a fan: "We have a lot in common: our time at Fürth, the hair, the similar build. Robert is lauf- und kampfstark, a runner and a fighter. That suits Dynamo very well."

Now it gets serious

The fun ends on the pitch. Dynamo are bottom of the table and under heavy pressure, and the mood in Dresden is tense.

Will knows the feeling. "The stadium can swing either way," he says. He defends Dresden's recent mistakes in build-up play, recalling a similar error of his own in Osnabrück. "Nobody talks about it when you've played it out well 25 times, only about the one thing."