hoffenheim is a village of just 3,191 people in the German state of B and verberg that's smaller than the village where I live in East Yorkshire this is where my local Village team play their home games 10 minutes from the front door of my house in a division known as the Humber Premier League that is the 11th tier of English football a mere 10 divisions below the Premier League where some matches can draw literally dozens of fans not at this time of year of course it's much too cold but perhaps in May or August I've actually trained with them a couple of times I was told that I was only good enough for the reserves who play two divisions below the first team but in the end I decided that they might take things a little too seriously for the 13th tier after someone called me a seab bomb for taking a heavy touch jordo Rondo this is pretty much the archetypal Village football club a field two goalposts some white lines not like that and a bunch of Park players playing for the Love of the Game and typically having to pay for that privilege not all Village football clubs are created equal though not all that long ago hoffenheim were virtually indistinguishable you know apart from speaking German to my local Village Club but in a remarkably short space of time these former narks have gone from being a ninth Tier Park team than no one outside of their local District had ever even heard of to becoming Mainstays in the Bundesliga for the last 15 years which is one of Europe's big four leagues finishing as high as third above former European Champions like brucia Dortmund and Hamburg and competing in the Champions League group stage where they Twi Drew with Lyon and only lost narrowly against Manchester City a reminder in case it were needed that hoffenheim is a village football club who hadn't even played League football prior to the 2000s it would be fair to say that if I pop down to train with hoffenheim I would look a little bit more out of place and I suspect even the reserves wouldn't want me hoffenheim now have a 30,000 seater Stadium capable of holding 10 times The Village's population they have employed world-class managers like juliia nlman Ralph rangnick and hansy flick and they appear to be well positioned to make a return to European football this season oh and did I mention that everyone absolutely hates them and the owner is about as despised in Germany as Napoleon was in the early 1800s no ah well I suppose I've got some explaining to do fortunately enough that's what today's video is all about so sit back relax and join me on a journey to the little old village of hoffenheim which is famous for virtually nothing but its football club as we take a look at tsg 1899 hoffenheim's rise from absolute nobody's to dislodging some of Germany's biggest clubs from from cities of millions how they did it and why they and their owner are so widely despised hoffenheim is synonymous possibly more so than any other club in World football with just one man that man is 83-year-old software engineer deepar hop whose influence runs through the middle of hoffenheim and by extension through the middle of this video like the name of a seaside resort runs through a stick of rock Hop was born in hidle bber which is the nearest city to offenheim about 20 km away as the crow flies in 1940 Hop's father was a Nazi and by that I don't just mean that he was a German soldier during World War II or that he was once caught with his arm raised in an unfortunate position no Emil Hop was a troop fer a troop leader in English of the Nazi Brown Shirts who led his own local division of the sa under ml's command hoffenheim's local Nazis destroyed a synagogue in the near by town of B and Bon during the infamous Crystal KN or night of the broken glass in November 1938 a program against Jews carried out by the sa in a Prelude to the Holocaust hop studied telecommunications Engineering in carser and after graduating from University he became a software engineer at IBM in 1972 hop along with four other former IBM colleagues founded the software company sap hop served as sap CEO from 1988 through to 1998 was chairman of the company's supervisory board from 1998 to 203 and he sat on the board for another 2 years after that even after stepping down from Sap's board in 2005 hop retained his 10% stake in the company which has since been diluted to closer to half that amount in a business currently valued at over €180 billion e though that still gives hop and his family a healthy n worth of an excessive $10 billion making him one of the 250 richest people in the world a lifelong football fan hop began playing in hoffenheim's Youth Department at 14 and by 17 he was already representing the first team hop claims to have played more than 200 games for hoffenheim as a striker but the level that hoffenheim were playing at at the time dictates that not even the owner of the club can verify that claim even the Germans weren't keeping record of ninth tier Village football clubs in the early 1960s hop had to leave hoffenheim when he went to University representing KS ru's University team instead but he never drifted far from his Boyhood Club many years later during the late 1980s by which stage hop had become a hoffenheim fan rather than a player Sap's success had already made him an extraordinarily wealthy man in the 1988 89 season when hoffenheim were relegated back down into the K Liga a following just a a single season in the seventh tier of German Football hop decided to intervene initially he just functioned as a sort of wealthy local benefactor supporting hoffenheim's youth teams that he once played in and various minor infrastructure upgrades but after witnessing the club's relegation hop realized that he could make a real difference hoffenheim returned to the seventh tier in 1991 thanks to Hop's Investments and once again they would only stick around for a single season this time however it wasn't because they were immediately relegated but rather because they earned back-to-back promotions reaching the dizzying heights of the Landers Lia The regionally Divided six tier of German football but hop wasn't done there as his personal Fortune Rose so to did the fortunes of hoffenheim and following yet another promotion to the fifth tier in 1996 hoffenheim began a rapid process of professionalization Peter Hoffman a fellow heidleberg native of hops who had been involved with the club for more than 20 years already was appointed as hoffenheim's first Club president he would go on to lead the club getting reelected on eight separate occasions until his death in 2020 at which point he was the longest serving president in the Bundesliga the pace of hoffenheim's Rise was truly remarkable in 1998 hoffenheim's Reserve team which was only founded on hops watch won promotion to the kley gray just N9 years after hoffenheim's first team's relegation to that League had prompted Hop's intervention and vast investment in 1999 in response to hoffenheim's rise and in an effort to Aid further growth hot built a brand new 5000 seater stadium in the village which was aply named the deepar Hop Stadium given that hop had privately financed the Stadium's construction and subsequently leased it to the club at a nominal rate it was a bold move given that at the time despite winning three promotions in 8 years hoffenheim was still only able to attract a few hundred fans to their home games at the turn of the Millennium hoffenheim were promoted again reaching the fourth tier oleaga Bon verberg and they sent out a real statement of intent to the rest of their new division with the appointment of Hy flick flick wasn't experienced in management he was just 35 at the time and his only coaching experience was four years as a player coach a Victoria bonal but but he brought with him experience of what it takes to compete and win at the very highest level flick made over a 100 appearances over five seasons playing for Bayern Munich between 1985 and 1990 during which time he won four Bundesliga titles and started in a Champions League final whilst flick was starting in the biggest game in European Club football hoffenheim was still a park team they were a holy amateur organization right up until 1992 just 8 years before before flick arrived working alongside former hoffenheim midfielder Alfred shern flick implemented a fast attacking and high intensity style of football that would become synonymous with hoffenheim throughout their rise through the divisions it was a style which chimed well with hoffenheim's young Squad and in Flick's first season and hoffenheim's first ever in the fourth tier they won a second successive promotion as Champions though hop ensured that hoffenheim were the highest Spenders on both transfers and wages in every League that they competed in until their eventual Ascent of the Bundesliga he invested significantly more money in the club's infrastructure and Youth Development hoffenheim's rapid rise had raised one or two eyebrows within German football but it wasn't until December 2003 when they shocked by a lusen in the dfb pocal that the club first made national headlines Lucio and Dimitar Berbatov two fantastic full Internationals both found the back of the net for l but it was the third tier Village team who ran out 3-2 winners behind the scenes Hop's latest pet project was a state-of-the-art training center which opened its doors ahead of the 20045 campaign Fit For A Bundesliga team it was a sign of Hop's ambition and The Following Season hoffenheim's under 19s won promotion to Germany's Top Flight Of Youth team football it was also a sign of Hop's ambition and indeed his impatience that after a fourth failed attempt to win promotion to the second Bundesliga and with the 2005 06 season not going as planned Hy flick was sacked by this stage anyone paying any attention was well aware that hop and by extension hoffenheim had very Deep Pockets but no one anticipated the caliber of flicks replacement Ralph rang nicker guided Shela to a second place finish in the Bundesliga in the 20045 season and the season before joining hoffenheim he guided the German Giants to victories against feda and PSV and a draw with AC Milan in the Champions League hot managed to convince rangnick with the help of what one suspects was a rather healthy 5year contract offer to go from managing the second best team in Germany in a 62,000 seater sold out every week Stadium to a team in the country's thirdd tier whose brand new stadium only accommodated 5,000 fans and fewer than half of that amount on average ever actually turned up it was the coup to end all coups and rannik was given the license to craft hoffenheim in his own image the club already had a focus on Youth and a reputation for playing attacking football but rangnick took both to another level when he arrived hoffenheim had neither a medical nor a scouting Department rangnick soon changed that already with more than 20 years of managerial experience under his belt rangnick was even more impatient than hop and he made clear to hoffenheim's moneyman exactly what needed to be done to realize both of their Ambitions when hoffenheim's more experienced players fail to buy into his bold ideas rangnick quickly discarded of them deciding to focus from that point on solely on more malleable Young Players whose market value could Skyrocket with the right development following rang Nick's first summer in charge then the oldest player that hoffenheim signed on his watch was 24-year-old Swedish Defender P Nelson by and large everyone else was only 1920 or 21 rang Nick's youthful hoffenheim team won an immediate promotion to the second Bundesliga ahead of life in the second tier rangnick and hoffenheim's newly founded scouting departments did one hell of a job though hoffenheim broke the second Bundesliga spending record in their first ever season playing at that level signing future Brazilian International caros Eduardo for €8 million from gemio and spending more than € 20 million e in total those eyering sums by second Bundesliga standards were invested incredibly well alongside Eduardo who went on to win six caps for Brazil one of them coming in a 1-nil win against England hoffenheim also welcome the likes of Denver bar Cheno Abassi and verad ivich they also signed 21-year-old Brazilian Prodigy LS Gustavo on loan from Corinthians Alig guano and later on a permanent basis after his debut campaign hoffenheim assem the second youngest Squad in the second Bundesliga with an average age of under 23 but in their first ever season in the division they won a historic promotion to the Bundesliga sandwich between two German Giants in barusa Munch and gladbach and colog who were promoted alongside them although hoffenheim had only Built their new stadium in 1999 and their new training ground in 2004 following promotion to the Bundesliga in 2007 hop decided that it was time to build a second brand new stadium in only 8 years and a second new training complex in three on the first due to hoffenheim's Rapid climb up the divisions though new The deepar Hop Stadium fell short of Bundesliga requirements instead of renovating the tiny ground which had routinely sold out for the first time the year that hoffenheim won promotion hop decided to ride hoffenheim's new wave of popularity and instead spent a whopping 60 million EUR building more than 30,000 seat of stadium that wouldn't look out of place in Germany's Top Flight the Ry necer Arena currently known as the prezero arena for sponsorship reasons isn't based in hoffenheim but in the nearby town of sinim about 10 minutes down the road nestled in between a thermal bass a Technology Museum and an Airfield Sim is larger than hoffenheim the you could still fit almost the entire Town's 35,000 strong population inside of the Ry necer Arena the move suited not just Bundesliga regulations though but also hop and Hoffman's own Ambitions if hoffenheim were to grow their fan base from a village of 3,000 people they would have to expand their catchment area with the nearest Bundesliga Club Carl's ruer who were relegated That season over 45 minutes away and the next closest stutgart being over an hour away hop wanted to make hoffenheim the club not just of 3,000 villagers but of the entire Rin Nea Metropolitan region which is home to over 2 million people it was with that in mind during the mid 2000s that Hopper attempted to merge hoffenheim with two local clubs relocating the new club to the city of heidleberg where he was born to form a new club which would have been called FC heidleberg 06 hop faced opposition both from local clubs and from farmers who demanded several multiples of market value for the land upon which Hopper PL to build the club's new ground it was in 2005 when his merger plans finally failed that hop sharply increased his funding for offenheim immediately proceeding Rick's arrival and set about trying to realize his vision even with what was ostensibly still a village Club hoffenheim's second Stadium move in less than a decade was an important step on that Journey both functionally and symbolically since it meant that they now had the largest stadium in the region the club's new training complex was was no less important and arguably even more impressive hoffenheim might have been an amateur 7th tier Club within the last 20 years but you would never have known it to look at their facilities more of a sporting Village ironically for a football club from an actual Village just 3 minutes down the road hop moved hoffenheim's headquarters and offices to Nextdoor zoen Housen as well as building a state-of-the-art training ground covering some 7,000 square m hoffenheim moved into the their stunning new premises in Autumn 2009 while retaining their training center in hoffenheim that opened in 2004 the stadium move meanwhile freed up the deepar Hops Stadium to become the new home of hoffenheim's Reserve team and since 2013 hoffenheim's women's team as well hoffenheim 2 incidentally currently compete in the regional Liga svest the fourth tier of German Football a level which hoffenheim's first team only reached for the first time in their entire history of the beginning of the 2000s 15 years on from the construction of hoffenheim's complex in Zenus it is still one of the most impressive facilities in the Bundesliga accompanied by some of the most cuttingedge research training methods and data analytics in German football though hoffenheim always had an inbuilt financial advantage in the lower leagues rangnick insisted that in order to compete in the Bundesliga as a village club hoffenheim would have to somehow distinguish themselves from everyone else half and I'm had already had success with young players both from their own youth ranks and by targeting the recruitment of young players with high potential but this was an attempt to double down the tsg research lab built on site is possibly the single most advanced football Research Center in Germany though it has since broadened its research Beyond hoffenheim's primary business having created innovative ways in which to improve the speed of young players Vision awareness and decision making the research lab carried out further studies into whether similar practices could be applied to other Industries creating novel training programs for professions like firefighters which they consider capable of making real world differences in emergency situations within football hoffenheim's methods have already been Vindicated in the last 10 years hoffenheim have won the South Southwest Division of the under 19 Bundesliga four times which is more than any other club that's not bad going when one considers that the South Southwest Division also contains the likes of stutgart Andre Frankfurt and Bayern Munich after 10 wins from their opening 13 games hoffenheim once again lead the table so far this season though still in its infancy wherever you look in European football you'll feel the impact of hoffenheim's Youth ranks Everton's amedu Anana barua dortman Joo Gregor Cobell and Nicholas Zula and RB leig star off bound Gartner All Began their careers with a village Club Bologna's Stefan Posh leusen yonas Hoffman and Brighton's Pascal gross did likewise in terms of those who didn't start out at hoffenheim but were nonetheless developed there from an early age the likes of Roberto firmino Joe elinton and Kim demai have all enjoyed great success as well as earning hoffenheim an absolute Fortune upon their departures as did Leeds United's record signing georginia routa who was was signed by hoffenheim for €750,000 and sold for £35 million all in the space of less than2 years it is a business model that has made hoffenheim far less reliant on Hop's money in recent years which is something that we will come on to in a moment hoffenheim began their Maiden Bundesliga campaign like a season super Club winning all but four of their first 15 Bundesliga matches with the Ryan Neer Arena not finished until the new year hoffenheim spent the first half of the Season playing at the car Ben stadium in Manheim and their players could be forgiven for never wanting to leave hoffenheim didn't lose a single game at their temper home where they beat Andre Frankfurt Hamburg and thrash bruscia Dortmund 4-1 at Christmas and indeed even at the start of February hoffenheim were top of the Bundesliga table an injury crisis in the second half of the Season saw their form collapse and they narrowly missed out on European football but a seventh place Place finish was beyond even Hop's wildest expectations rangnick resigned in January 2011 after Brazilian midfielder Luis Gustavo was so behind his back and having had just one manager for nearly 5 years hoffenheim proceeded to go through six in less than two for a club that had been so stable the tumult knocked them off course and very nearly saw them relegated in the 2012-13 campaign a shocked 2-1 win away at brucia Dortmund on the final day of the season courtesy of two goals in the last 13 minutes prevented hoffenheim from being automatically relegated and in the Bundesliga relegation and promotion playoffs they managed to overcome four-time German Champions Kaiser slon 52 on aggregate at this point it is probably worth addressing the elephant in the room namely why everyone hates hoffenheim and in particular deep Mar hop in the English sake the idea of a local billionaire who used to play for them turned turning a village Club into premier league and Champions League contenders is fairy tale Stu it's like living out the wildest fantasies of an ambitious football manager save in England we have become hyper normalized to the idea of football clubs being assets owned exclusively by billionaires hedge funds or nation states and that the fate of each and every Club should be entirely dependent upon the will aptitude and investment of those same billionaires hedge funds and nation states the ownership of English football has become so distorted that the idea of a local billionaire owning a club like say Tony Bloomer Brighton is the most romantic ideal imaginable well hop is not that dissimilar to blo up Brighton or Matthew benam at brenford just on steroids figuratively speaking of course but in the German psyche what English football fans might consider romantic is viewed as a kind of death the very notion of a football club which which is supposed to be a Community Asset being entirely dependent upon the whims and wealth of one man or woman whether that man or woman is Jesus Christ or Muhammad bin Salman is an anathema to the German view of the game a phrase that you'll hear a lot from German football fans is financial doping basically the idea that receiving vast external Investments as hoffenheim have is just a form of cheating although Bayern Munich are broadly disliked by pretty much every other German club and their hedony widely considered to be undesirable there is an acknowledgement that due to their size and success Bayern is a revenue generating machine and they should be able to spend that Revenue as they please because they earned it so to speak a club like hoffenheim or RB lsig by contrast the latter of whom are even more verly disliked than hoffenheim by a couple of orders of magnitude are only where they are because of artificial Investments whatever your views on owner funding that much is in arguable hoffenheim though now very well-run would still be playing Park football in Germany's amateur leagues in front of maybe 50 or 60 people were it not for deep mhop another term that you'll hear a lot is plastic Club German Football Prides itself on tradition and fan culture for the first 70 years of their existence hoffenheim were noteworthy only in so far as just how truly unnoteworthy they really were virtually nothing that exists at the club now beyond their name preceded hop and hoffenheim didn't have any fans prior to about 2006 so how could they possibly have any fan culture there is another reason for the animosity when one team Rises another Must Fall there are only 18 spots in the Bundesliga and as the likes of hoffenheim RB Leipzig and before them Wolfsburg and B lausen of risen several German Giants resplendant with history tradition and fan culture of Fallen the second Bundesliga is now home to more former German Champions than the bundes leager itself the likes of Hamburg Kaiser slon Hera Berlin urberg Hanover and Fortuna dorf all find themselves languishing in the second Bundesliga these days meanwhile Shela are at risk of dropping into the third Liga and 1860 Munich are already there and they have been for the last 5 years there is a mixture of distrust and resentment towards the bundesliga's plastic clubs then and German football fans and particularly Ultras have never been known for keeping their feelings to themselves in 2020 Bayern Munich fans brandished a banner of hop which was captioned du Heron meaning you son of a or son of a the match was halted for 13 minutes and almost abandoned after bayern's ultas refused the pleas of their own players to take the offend ending banner down cologne supporters Drew upon a similar theme back in 2017 with two banners one depicting hops mother as a prostitute and another his father as a Nazi that one was at least 50% accurate though hop perhaps unsurprisingly didn't particularly appreciate it another game between hoffenheim and brucia Munch and gladbach was nearly abandoned after glabb back's Ultras displayed two banners one depicting hop caught in crosshairs and another St in Sons of insult a son of a and get punished by sons of that was a reference to the dfb Germany's Football Association Banning brucia Dortmund supporters from traveling to offine for two years due to persistent anti- hop banners which Drew upon similar themes no team supporters have been more vocal in their opposition to hop and all that he and others like him stand for than dortmund's it would be fair to say that hop who is loved in his own region for both his financial backing of hoffenheim and several worthy charitable causes hasn't always taken criticism from other team supporters particularly well hopp has previously written to the dfb and the Bundesliga complaining about the level of abuse that he has received claiming that it should be treated the same as racism and other forms of discrimination hop presumably thinks that the be in Bame stands for billionaires and that being the billionaire bankroller of a village football club constitutes a protected characteristic it is certainly arguable that some of the criticism aimed at Hop has oversteep the Mark at least of polite Society if not necessarily targeted harassments but some of the Pearl clutching from Hop and his acolytes has been borderline nauseating Hop's motto is not so much milw War's Infamous tagline no one likes us we don't care but more no one likes us and I'm actually rather upset about it admittedly it doesn't have quite the same ring to it on the Terrace's the Bundesliga and the German press love to play upon German football's Ultras as a marketing Ploy and unique selling point but they get a little bit ansy and uncomfortable when those same Ultras start to exp spouse any of their founding or fundamental principles the 50 plus1 rule in Germany is supposed to ensure that supporters through memberships maintain at least 50% plus one share in a club to prevent outside investment from ever acquiring a controlling interest in them when the rule was introduced in 1998 Wolfsburg and B lausen were given special exemptions on account of the fact that they had already been owned by private companies in the form of Volkswagen and buyer for more than 20 years before the new rule came in when hoffenheim reached the Bundesliga they exploited that same loophole citing hops funding for more than 20 years to exempt themselves as well that is different to ABB like Zig who are technically 50 plus1 compliance but used a slightly different loophole liip Zig initially only had 21 members many of whom were Anonymous but all of whom were believed to have some connection to Red Bull therefore allowing Red Bull to run leipsig as they pleased whilst remaining within the rules in March hoffenheim announced that they would be giving up their exemption and voluntarily joining the 50 plus1 family last week that decision was ratified by the DF B and hoffenheim's more than 11,000 members are now officially the club's majority shareholders hop will continue to financially support offenheim and of course the club wouldn't have those 11,000 members which is still the fewest of any Bundesliga Club other than I'll like Zig were not for Hop's estimated 350 million euro personal investments in the club so the perception of them is unlikely to be radically altered overnight through their Academy growing fan base and player trades hoffenheim have become much less dependent on hoop in recent years though since the 201516 season hoffenheim have actually been the second most profitable Club in the Bundesliga in terms of net spend trailing only brucia Dortmund during that time hoffenheim have made a profit of more than € 160 million euros on player trades meanwhile clubs like herter Berlin and Hamburg who have both been relegated to the second Bundesliga are in the red having brought in a fraction of what hoffen have managed through player sales it makes sense that hoffenheim should look to reduce their dependence on Hop not only because it makes business sense and might make them just a little bit less despised by the German public but also because without wanting to get too morbid he is 83 years old hop won't be around forever and whether his two sons Daniel and Oliver will have the same passion or commitment to the club isn't publicly known yet over the last 2 years hoffenheim have lost 66 million e but in the three years prior to that they posted pre-tax profits in excess of 100 million euros and a return to European football this season would likely put hoffenheim back in the black in 2016 hoffenheim made a 28-year-old Julian nlman the youngest head coach in the history of the Bundesliga nlman had been coaching at hoffenheim since the age of 23 but it was an incredibly Brave decision to hand him his first job when hoffenheim deep in the Bundesliga relegation Zone when nasman was appointed 20 games into the season in February 2016 hoffenheim had won just two games all season nlman won seven of his 14 games in charge though transforming hoffenheim's win percentage from 10% before he arrived to 50% and finishing one point above the Drop The Following Season hoffenheim qualified for the Champions League they lost in the Playoff round against eventual finalist Liverpool but the following year there would be no playoffs required for hoffenheim after they finish third nalan's work inevitably saw him poached somewhat ironically by fellow Plastics RB liip Zig and nlman near enough made it a clean sweep of Germany's most hated clubs by joining Bayern Munich in 2021 hoffenheim felt a ninth in nalan's final season in 201819 and they are already on their fifth manager since he left following three successive mid-table finishes Hoff have the opportunity to return to Europe this season currently sat in sixth place under American head coach pelino Matarazzo perhaps the most extraordinary stats of all about hoffenheim is that in the 201607 season they had an average attendance of 3,26 roughly half the capacity of the deepar Hop Stadium by the 20089 season literally two years later they averaged 28,0 95 fans at their home games selling out first the car Ben stadium and then the Rin Neer Arena every week the reality is that though hoffenheim might be a plastic Club who no one would have heard of without hundreds of millions of Euros of deep mops money being invested in them they are like the Red Bull franchise clubs extremely well-run and unlike a club like MK Don's they have been able to amass considerable support the Rin Nea triangle is home to over 2 million people and hoffenheim is their only Bundesliga Club how durable that support will prove once hop is gone and hoffenheim potentially have to stand on their own two feet or in the event of neighboring clubs like Manheim becoming more competitive Still Remains to be seen but for now hoffenheim will remain both the smallest locality with a Top Flight football team in any of Europe's major leagues equivalent your nearest Village team competing with Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premier League but also one of the most hated teams in Germany viewed as an a front to all that is Holy in the largely safeguarded German game that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching I hope you enjoyed it hit the like button if that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course goes without was saying make sure that you're subscribed and have notifications turned on for both this Channel hitc 7s and also my second Channel Alfie Poots Arma both of which should be about to appear on your screens now along with a couple of videos that you might enjoy watching after this one you can also find me on Twitter Instagram or threads via the username at hitc 7s on all three and you should be able to find all of those links down in the video description below should you wish to do so cheers
