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.
To all Bayer 04 fans: The Fanwelt will be closed all day next Monday 30 June. This is due to preparations for the change of kit supplier from Castore to New Balance on Tuesday 1 July.
Show moreThe Norway U23 international Julie Jorde has completed the move from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Brøndby IF. The twelve-time champions of Denmark have signed the midfielder on permanent terms after her loan move from the Bundesliga to Denmark in the winter.
Show moreIt is almost two years since Bayer 04 new signing Abdoulaye Faye first stepped foot into the BayArena as a player for the Swedish club BK Häcken in the opening match in the 2023/24 Europa League campaign. A day before his nineteenth birthday, the central defender did not play in the 4-0 win for the Werkself but it was "an incredible night" for him on 21 September 2023 as he explained in his first interview on bayer04.de. "I watched the players and saw the fans. I liked it." It was also the first European night early on in his career. He only joined the then champions of Sweden in the cold north of Europe from his home in Senegal a few weeks before that special moment. Bayer04.de profiles our new defender.
Show moreWelcome, Abdoulaye Faye. The 20-year-old Senegalese central defender joins Leverkusen from top-flight Swedish club BK Häcken. In his first interview he talks about his move to Bayer 04 and his targets with the Werkself.
Show moreBayer 04 Leverkusen have signed the Senegalese central defender Abdoulaye Faye. The 20-year-old joins the Bundesliga side from Swedish top-flight club BK Häcken. Faye has penned a contract at Leverkusen to 30 June 2030.
Show more