There has been a lot of speculation among Lions fans over the past few exciting days as to who will actually be guarding the Lions’ goal in the upcoming regional league season. After a forced relegation to the Bavarian Regionalliga, one might have assumed that Thomas Dehne, who returned to his home in Upper Bavaria from Kiel last summer, would not be there. After new gaming company TSV 1860’s Instagram channel teased on Monday afternoon that a report on goalkeepers could be expected soon, speculation has swirled about the return of Lion legend and 2018 promotion hero Marco Hiller, who bid a tearful farewell to the Belgian League Two in the summer of 2025. In fact, the new goalkeeper for 1860 will be another old friend: Vitus Eicher!
We returned from Heidenheim in the fall of 2025.
In fact, Vitus Eicher is a likely solution for the vacant position between posts at the Munich Große Liebe. Last September, the 35-year-old returned to Grünwalderstrasse 114 after eight and a half years at 1. FC Heidenheim. However, not directly at the target, but next to it. As we reported in September, he has strengthened the Lions’ goalkeeping team. Especially with the New Zealand teams, Eicher supported “chief goalkeeper” Rene Wollath, who was also instrumental in securing Eicher’s return to Giesing, as the Erdinger native told us on the sidelines of the Amasa game in October. Subsequently, he was always seen at the games of coach Alper Kayabunara U21.
Eicher vs. Kiel in 2015
Now Eicher returns to Löventor, where he has already played in 35 official matches. 33 times in the 2nd Bundesliga and twice in historical relegation thrillers against Holstein Kiel in the early summer of 2015, when the Lions, already relegated, managed to remain in the league in the return leg thanks to a last-minute goal from Kai Bülow, and then a very rare event happened and the arena in Müllberg shook. By the way, Eicher celebrated his professional debut in the TSV 1860 box on April 29, 2012 in Frankfurt, when he was allowed to represent the main goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly in the penultimate round in a meaningless 2-0 victory from a sporting point of view over the returning Eintracht Frankfurt from the Bundesliga, which had already been confirmed. The largest number of matches in one season, namely 19, occurred in the 2015/16 season. However, after the winter break, Stefan Ortega supplanted him from first place. A year later, Eicher moved to Ligue 1 rivals FC Heidenheim, where he never progressed beyond the role of reserve goalkeeper.
Experience in the Bavarian Regional League
Now the lovable original Lion, who laced up his football boots at NLZ TSV 1860 shortly after the turn of the millennium, has not only returned to his beloved club, but is back in goal. Namely in the Bavarian Regionalliga, in which he tried to keep his box clean in 52 appearances for Amas between 2012 and 2016. Mostly quite successful. Before the creation of the Bavarian Regionalliga, he played in goal for the U21 team in 64 matches in the Regionalliga South for three seasons.
Four goalkeepers take turns participating in test matches
In the last six test games in preparation for the upcoming 2026/27 season, young goalkeepers Paul Bachmann (21), Stefan Musa (24), Leon Erkocaoglan (19) and Maurcio Duncker (19) have defended the Lions goal with relatively equal playing time. Ultimately, those in charge decided to bring a lot of experience to the game and goals with Vitus Eicher.
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