Salvation came late for Karlsruher FC but it did come. The KSC captain Kai Bülow scored with a header on 83 minutes in last Saturday's match against SV Wehen Wiesbaden to secure a 2-1 victory in the first win of the season on matchday four. The two-time DFB Cup winners (1955 and 1956) were relegated to the third division for the third time earlier this year. The club are hoping that this season marks a repeat of the previous ones following relegation in 2000 and 2012. The team from Baden ended those two campaigns as champions to return to the second tier. The club from the south-west of Germany are again favourites to take one of the top positions in the third division this term. However, they are currently eleventh in the table after four matches.
Head coach Marc-Patrick Meister took over the team in April 2017 in an almost hopeless position. Both Tomas Oral and Mirko Slomka had been and gone from the hot seat over the course of the season. The 37-year-old manager now faces the task of achieving consistently good results with a rejigged squad from the summer. There is certainly enough individual talent in the side: In Anton Fink, KSC signed the record goalscorer in the third division (116 goals in 254 games) from Chemnitzer FC. His strike partner Dominik Stroh-Engel joined from Darmstadt where he scored 27 goals in 2013/14; a record return for the Lilies in a third division season. Incoming players Kai Bülow (1860 Munich), David Pisot (Würzburger Kickers), Daniel Gordon (SV Sandhausen), Andreas Hofmann (SpVgg Greuther Fürth) and Marc Lorenz (SV Wehen Wiesbaden) have all demonstrated their quality in the second and third divisions. They are joined by talented youngsters with a lot of promise who moved from Bundesliga U23 teams to the Wildpark plus Germany U20 international Matthias Bader from the club's own youth system.
KSC have had to deal with the typical symptoms of relegation from the second to the third tier in German football: 26 players left the squad in the summer with 20 coming in, including several from the youth teams. The only players from last season's KSC squad in the starting eleven against Wehen were striker Oskar Zawada and talented midfielder Florent Muslija. The latter played almost exclusively for the U19 team last term.
The youth teams at KSC have produced a number of big names in German football in the past. In the 1990s, Oliver Kahn and Mehmet Scholl began their careers at KSC before moving on to the record champions in Munich. And Jens Nowotny, Bayer 04 captain for many years, also came from the youth set-up at Karlsruher SC and he was bossing the defence when Karlsruher last reached the final of the DFB Cup. Under head coach Winfried Schäfer, KSC lost 1-0 to FC Kaiserslautern in 1996. Karlsruher SC are still renowned in German football for their success in youth development - and that is almost certain to remain the case.
KSC are an attractive, and yet tough opponent for the first round of the Cup. The team from Baden have played more competitive matches than the Werkself with four games in the league already under their belts. And the quality of the squad is among the best in the third division. If the new team starts to gel quickly and doesn't drop too many points in the league matches then it would be reasonable to expect there will only be one year before Karlsruher SC return to the second division.
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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From special edition jerseys to fan banners, the home game against Mainz 05 was all about the many Bayer 04 fan clubs. Accordingly, a fitting tribute to the long-standing Werkself supporters was not to be missed during half-time in the Bundesliga match. Fernando Carro, CEO, honoured the up to 50-year anniversaries of six fan clubs in front of the coaches' benches at the BayArena.
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It is an expression of solidarity and a tribute to the unique fan culture Under the Cross: Bayer 04 Leverkusen make a special statement with the "50 Years of Fan Clubs" jersey. To mark the founding of the "First Fan Club 1976 Leverkusen", which was followed by many more over the years right up to the present day, the Bundesliga club is commemorating 50 years of passion with this new jersey. Highs and lows, successes celebrated together as well as defeats suffered are manifested in this piece of white fabric, a symbol of unwavering identification with the Werkself.
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There’s lots going on at the BayArena today. The home game against FSV Mainz 05 is all about the numerous Bayer 04 fan clubs, whose birth - the founding of the "1. Fanclub 1976 Leverkusen" - dates back 50 years. A number of fan club representatives will be involved in awards, a banner display and a half-time matchday chat, and the Werkself are set to play in a special white fan club jersey. During half-time, Leverkusen mayor Stefan Hebbel and javelin world champion Steffi Nerius will also talk about the Olympic bid involving Leverkusen. Black and Red fans are advised to get to the stadium in good time today. Matchday news.
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The Werkself host Premier League club Arsenal in the Round of 16 first leg in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League campaign. The match at the BayArena is on 10/11 March. Read on for information on ticket sales for this fixture.
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