A wonder from the village with 3272 residents
By the beginning of the 90s, Hoffenheim were a member of 8th rank of the competition in Germany, without the slightest chance to advance and with no ambitions, whatsoever. However, everything starts to change when in 1990. club's former center forward, Dietmar Hopp takes over the club. Hopp, back then a 50-year old can hardly be found in encyclopedia's, but if you have any idea about IT industry or business it is almost impossible that you haven't heard of him. Hopp is one of the SAP founders and owners, one of the biggest software companies on the planet and the man whose fortune is appraised at over 6 billion dollars. When you have in mind how rich Hopp is and his love for football, than it is no miracle that in the next few seasons Hoffenheim moved up from one rank to the other, and after only one season in Zweite got hold of the elite.
The money is no problem
Of course, we never doubted that the money could be a problem for Hoffenheim. After promotion to the second league Hopp spent 18 million euros on the transfer market which is an absolute record for this rank of competition. Still, coach Rangink is the key man for this team. He became famous after Ulm got promoted from third to the first league in only two seasons, which he repeated with Hoffenheim. His style is offensive and he organized an excellent scouting team so each year he succeeds in finding excellent players among the leftovers from the first league. A problem for Hoffenheim in the start could be playing in Mannheim for the first part of the season, but considering that they already sold 12 000 season tickets they won't lack support from Hoffenhaim, Sinsheim, and Heidelberg. Second part of the season will be played at their new Rein-Neckar Arena in Sinsheim whose capacity is 30 000 people. The team is reinforced with several fine players, out of which the most famous name is Brazilian Wellington from Internacional and Andreas Beck from Stuttgart, but the base of the team will be the players who marked the biggest success in club's history.
In
Wellington (Internacional), Beck (Stuttgart), Ockan (Salzburg), Luis Gustavo (Corinthias)
Out
Surprise of the season
Last year Hoffenheim didn't plan the promotion to Bundesliga. According to Hopp's plan, his favourites were supposed to enter the elite in 2010 and stay there forever. Still, major investments paid off and Hoffenheim's excellent finish brought them to the elite. Don't be surprised if a similar thing happens this season. Although the newcomers usually get relegated the same season they got promoted, Hoffenheim could survive. Their biggest advantage is squad's coherence and pressure-free play. No one expects too much and their squad is very good, most of the players already have experience in the elite and they definitely have the quality to handle the rivals in the relegation battle. Season kicked off excellently with a 3:0 away win over Cottbus. After this result they shouldn't be underestimated but it is evident that they don't deserve to be. We think that they won't have problems with surviving and that midtable is their realistic extent.
CL
CLQ
UEFA
RELEG
