Comments on: TSG 1899 Hoffenheim – the fairytale football club?

By: Bob Holt

Bob Holt — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:35:49 +0000

As a man of simple pleasures and English I was captivated today to see a live football match between the aforementioned money bags Hoffenheim and the poor Mercedes paupers of the Bundesliga, Stuttgart. For some reason the poor financially starved supporters of Stuttgart seem to resent the many millions of Euroes (exactly twenty-the annual salary of two Bayern superstars) spent by a true supporter.

Eat your heart out the rest of Bundesliga-the hayseeds have arrived big time -see you all in Europe.

PS the 3-3 games was magic-rich boys or no rich boys.

A new supporter.

By: sorin

sorin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:12:39 +0000

It’s really nice to see how this team grows up but I think they wont make it for the Champions League. Bundesliga is far from from being finish.
Anyway this is a good example for the teams that spend a lot of money without success.

By: Paul Farrall

Paul Farrall — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:32:29 +0000

They’re also my 2nd favourite team.. in this case behind Liverpool. There’s many a bitter swipe being taken at them in Germany at the moment with people comparing them to Chelsea. The differences are stark and obvious, Hoffenheim have brought in about 20 players for just over 30 million euros. The majority of investment has been infrastructure based as somebody highlighted above. They are punching well above their weight despite the investment, yet can it really be a 20 game fluke?

By: Harsh

Harsh — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:36:31 +0000

I think it’s a fairy tale success really. It’s not often that we see such a meteoric rise. It just shows that not only talent but skill,grit and determination are equally important. They have come a long way and if they continue to play with their heart in it there’s no telling where they can reach. Perhaps a Champions league win?

I don’t know but they will be my second favourite team in the world after Milan should they make it.

Nice post by the way.

By: Paul Farrall

Paul Farrall — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:04:38 +0000

Here we are, 1st February and still top of the league they are, I donÂ´t think itÂ´s ridiculous to think they will make a Champions League spot perhaps, despite Ibsevic being out for the season now practically. Fantastic stuff

By: Fernando Manaka

Fernando Manaka — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:57:09 +0000

Well I got to say this team is turning out to be a I fine piece of Art and it’s duo to the great work of Sir Hopp that they are getting success, but wait…. the way he did it is fantastic, because he didn’t just inject money into the club like other multimillionaires would do,no,he’s a supporter and a feels something for the club and everything around it.Secondly he began by creating a “cantera” by making a youth academia and other infrastructures , joining with the tip of the iceberg creating a Stadium that is going to be there proud home and naturally “calling” up more sponsors(Nike and others).I wish the best of luck to Hoffenheim, because they did a fine job to get where they are now…

By: ultravioletu

ultravioletu — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:16:08 +0000

Nice article, Bevan. A small remark: the estimated Â£120 million were (or are) mostly spent in infrastructure: the new stadium in Sinsheim (estimated â‚¬60 million), the new training center in Zuzenhausen, the current stadion in Hoffenheim (built: 1998), the youth centers (notice the plural). The players came for noticeably less.

They may have made headlines (and attracted lot of hate) last years by signing Carlos Eduardo and Chinedu Obasi for record fees (compared to 2nd league standards, that is) of â‚¬8m and â‚¬6m, but on the whole, they’ve got in the last 3 years about 20 players for about â‚¬35m. This allowed them to make the leap from a rather dull “also ran” in the third league to a nice-to-watch bundesliga team. Even if they’ll relegate this season, that’s still a pretty impressive feat. Exagerating a bit, for â‚¬35m they might have get only Mutu (assuming that he could have been conviced to come to play in the Regionalliga for a borough that doesn’t even have a pub, not mentioning fancy cocaine discos).

It not how much they spent, but how did they spend the money they had, that made the difference.