Return, Cup Draw and World Cup Bonus: What Moves SC Freiburg

At the start of summer, several topics are coming together at SC Freiburg: In the youth department, a departure is confirmed, the first DFB Cup hurdle is scheduled – and additional money is flowing into the coffers thanks to World Cup call-ups.

Elias Etringer is leaving the Sport-Club after three years and returning to SV Elversberg. In addition, Freiburg will face Fortuna Düsseldorf away in the first round of the 2026/27 DFB Cup. And: For releasing four players to the World Cup, SC will receive at least 993,199.46 euros through the FIFA program – initially calculated with the scenario that the respective national teams are eliminated after the group stage.

Etringer returns to Elversberg

Elias Etringer moved from SV Elversberg to Freiburg's youth team in 2023, and now the goalkeeper is heading back to Saarland. The 18-year-old played in goal for SC Freiburg's U19s in the youth league. In Elversberg, the next step towards men's football is planned for him: He is to train with the first team squad, expand the goalkeeper team, and simultaneously gain match experience with the second team.

SV Elversberg has made the transfer public and given Etringer a contract until 2029. For the player, the return is primarily a sporting decision: Instead of more youth years in Freiburg, he is moving into a structure that should bring him closer to professional football – with a clear perspective, but without the expectation of immediately taking on a starting role at a higher level.

Cup opener leads again to Düsseldorf

In the first round of the 2026/27 DFB Cup, SC Freiburg will travel to Fortuna Düsseldorf. The draw took place at the German Football Museum in Dortmund, with Deniz Aytekin acting as the draw assistant. The first round will be played from August 21 to 24, 2026; the exact date is yet to be determined.

Sportingly, the draw is attractive because it offers a familiar setting: Last season, both teams already met in the competition. At the end of October 2025, Freiburg won 3:1 in Düsseldorf and thus advanced to the quarterfinals.

SC also goes into this task with a remarkably stable first-round record: For 15 years, Freiburg has always cleared the first cup hurdle. The last first-round exit dates back to August 2011 (2:3 at SpVgg Unterhaching). In recent years, the club has underlined its cup consistency with a final appearance in 2022 and semifinal appearances in 2023 and this year.

The period is also tricky for season planning because August is tightly scheduled: SC's Conference League playoff games are set for August 20 and 27. The cup match in Düsseldorf thus falls into a time window in which load management and squad depth traditionally play a special role.

World Cup call-ups bring SC almost a million euros

SC Freiburg also benefits economically from the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. The club has announced that Philipp Lienhart, Igor Matanović, Yuito Suzuki, and Johan Manzambi will travel to the tournament with their national teams.

Through the FIFA World Cup Benefits Program, clubs are compensated for releasing players during the tournament. The basis is a daily release fee: FIFA pays 11,000 US dollars per player per day. For Freiburg, this results – with a cautious calculation assuming elimination after the group stage – in a minimum sum of 993,199.46 euros. If the national teams stay longer in the competition, the amount increases accordingly with each additional tournament day.

In a Bundesliga comparison, SC ranks tenth with this sum. In total, 16 affected Bundesliga clubs receive around 22.52 million euros; internationally, the Bundesliga thus ranks second behind the Premier League.

All in all, it's a summer with several signals for Freiburg: Etringer's step back to Elversberg shows how closely career planning in youth football is linked to playing opportunities. The cup draw to Düsseldorf promises a challenging start to a packed August. And the World Cup call-ups provide financial planning security – as an additional, performance-independent income in a phase when sporting decisions often also have economic consequences.