Hoffenheim: German Village Team Reaches Second Division

As a football fan, this is my favorite time of year. It is the season for promotion and relegation in the leagues in Europe. It is a time when big clubs are surprisingly sent down and clubs you have never heard climb their way up the ladder. The influx of new teams and the exit of familiar clubs make for exciting end of the season drama and it can help to add new life into stale leagues. It also leads to some interesting stories.

Today we learn about the German club Hoffenheim, a team that plays in a town with just 3,300 residents. With four games remaining in their season, the club is already guaranteed of promotion to the German Bundesliga Second Division, one notch below the big boys like Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen. That is quite a rise for a club that was playing in the fifth division as recently as 2000.

While my sympathies always lie with the little engine that could, it is worth noting that Hoffenheim’s emergence in German football is largely the result of its benefactor, Dietmar Hopp, who is using the money he made from founding the software giant SAP to bring glory to his boyhood club.

If I were a billionaire, and lord knows that there is no threat of that ever happening, I would love to do something like this too. Instead of buying one of the best teams in the world, buy an obscure club and build it into something special. How fun would that be?

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Category: Bundesliga, World Football