VfL Wolfsburg

VfL Wolfsburg

Full name	Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V. (Sports club) Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg Fußball GmbH (Professional football club)
Nickname(s)	Die Wölfe (The Wolves)
Founded	12 September 1945 (1945-09-12)
Ground	Volkswagen Arena
Ground Capacity	30,000
Owner	Volkswagen (of GmbH)
Executive Director	Francisco Javier García Sanz
Head Coach	Dieter Hecking
League	Bundesliga
2013–14	5th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (pronounced [faʊ̯ ʔɛf ʔɛl ˈvɔlfsbʊʁk]) or Wolfsburg, is a German sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. It is best known for its football department, but other departments include badminton, handball and athletics.

The men's professional football team play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995.

Professional football is run by the spin-off organization VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH. VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.^[1][2] Since 2002, Wolfsburg's stadium is the Volkswagen Arena.

History

A new team in a new city

The city of Wolfsburg was founded in 1938 as Stadt des KdF-Wagen to house autoworkers building the car which would later become famous as the Volkswagen Beetle. The first football club affiliated with the autoworks was known as BSG Volkswagenwerk Stadt des KdF-Wagen, a works team. This team played in the first division Gauliga Osthannover in the 1943–44 and 1944–45 seasons.

On 12 September 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, a new club was formed and was known briefly as VSK Wolfsburg. This side began play in the green and white still worn by VfL today: local youth trainer Bernd Elberskirch had ten green jerseys at his disposal and white bed sheets donated by the public were sewn together by local women to make shorts.

On 15 December 1945, the club went through a crisis that almost ended its existence when all but one of its players left to join 1. FC Wolfsburg. The only player remaining, Josef Meyer, worked with Willi Hilbert to rebuild the side by signing new players. The new group adopted the moniker VfL Wolfsburg, VfL standing for Verein für Leibesübungen. This can be translated as "club for gymnastics" or "club for exercises." Within a year they captured the local Gifhorn title. In late November 1946, the club played a friendly against longtime Gelsenkirchen powerhouse Schalke 04 at the stadium owned by Volkswagen, emerging as the successor to BSG as the company sponsored side.

Postwar play

The club made slow but steady progress in the following seasons. They captured a number of amateur level championships, but were unable to advance out of the promotion playoffs until finally breaking through to the top tier Oberliga Nord in 1954 with a 2–1 victory over Heider SV. However, Wolfsburg struggled in the top flight, narrowly missing relegation each season until finally being sent down in 1959. When Germany's first professional football league – the Bundesliga – was formed in 1963, VfL was playing in the Regionalliga Nord (II) having just moved up from the Verbandsliga Niedersachsen (III), reaching the German Amateur Championship Final that same year (0–1 v. VfB Stuttgart Amat.).

Second division and advance to the Bundesliga

Wolfsburg remained a second division fixture over the next dozen years with their best performance being a second place finish in 1970. That finish earned the club entry to the promotion round playoffs for the Bundesliga where they performed poorly and were unable to advance. From the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s Die Wölfe played as a third division side in the Amateur Oberliga Nord. Consecutive first place finishes in 1991 and 1992, followed by success in the promotion playoffs saw the club advance to the 2. Bundesliga for the 1992–93 season.

VfL continued to enjoy some success through the 1990s. The team advanced to the final of the German Cup in 1995 where they were beaten 0–3 by Borussia Mönchengladbach, but then went on to the top flight on the strength of a second place league finish in 1997.

Early predictions were that the club would immediately be sent back down, but instead, the Wolves developed into a mid-table Bundesliga side. In the 1998–99 season, Wolfsburg under Wolfgang Wolf, was holding the fifth place in the 33rd fixture, and they had hopes to reach the 4th place, and the UEFA Champions League participation. Losing 6–1 away to Duisburg in the final fixture, the Wolves finished in sixth place with 55 points and qualified to the UEFA Cup. They qualified for the Intertoto Cup in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005, enjoying their best run in 2003 by reaching the final where they lost to Italian side Perugia. This was followed by a couple of seasons of little success for the club when only narrowly avoiding relegation with two 15th place finishes in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 season.

2008–present

For the 2007–08 season, the club hired former Bayern Munich manager Felix Magath, with whom they managed to finish an astonishing fifth place at the end of the season, the highest finish for the club at the time. This also enabled the Wolves to qualify for the UEFA Cup for only the second time in their history.

In the 2008–09 season, under Magath, Wolfsburg claimed their biggest success by winning their first Bundesliga title after defeating Werder Bremen 5–1 on 23 May 2009. During this campaign, Wolfsburg equalled the longest winning streak in one Bundesliga season with 10 successive victories after the winter break. They also became the only team in the Bundesliga to have had two strikers scoring more than 20 goals each in one season, with Brazilian Grafite and Bosnian Edin Džeko achieving this feat in their title-winning season, scoring 28 and 26, respectively. As a result of their title win, Wolfsburg qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history.

In the 2009–10 season, Wolfsburg dismissed their newly appointed trainer Armin Veh after the winter break, due to lack of success, with the club sitting tenth in the league. In the Champions League they came third in their group, behind Manchester United and CSKA Moscow, losing the chance for a place in the competition's successive round. As a result, they qualified for the Round of 32 phase of the UEFA Europa League. They defeated Spanish side Villarreal CF 6–3 on aggregate, and Russian champions Rubin Kazan 3–2. In the quarter-finals, however, they were beaten 3–1 by eventual finalists Fulham.

On 11 May 2010, the permanent head coach's position was filled by former England manager Steve McClaren. After having guided FC Twente to their first ever Dutch title, he was rewarded by becoming the first ever English coach to be given the chance to manage a Bundesliga side. On 7 February 2011, it was announced that McClaren had been sacked and that Pierre Littbarski would be taking over.^[3] Wolfsburg, however, lost for the fourth time in five matches under him and they finally slipped into the relegation places.

On 18 March 2011, Wolfsburg confirmed that Felix Magath would return as head coach and sporting director, almost two years since he led them to the Bundesliga title and just two days after being fired from his position at Schalke 04. He signed a two-year contract with the club.^[4] Magath steered the club to safety, but though the club invested heavily, Magath could only achieve a mid-table finish in the following 2011–12 season. After only five points in eight matches (and no goals and points in the last four games) in the 2012–13 season, Magath left the club by mutual consent on 25 October 2012.

Stadium

Wolfsburg plays at the Volkswagen Arena, a multi-purpose stadium which seats a total capacity of 30,000 spectators. Before construction was finished in 2002, Wolfsburg played their home games at the 20,500 capacity VfL-Stadium, where the amateur squad still plays. Currently the stadium is used mostly for the home games of VfL Wolfsburg, and is the site where they won their first Bundesliga title in the 2008–09 season.

Honours

Domestic

• Bundesliga:
  • Winners (1): 2008–09

• 2. Bundesliga:
  • Runners-up (1): 1996–97

• DFB-Pokal:
  • Runners-up (1): 1994–95

• DFL-Supercup:
  • Runners-up (1): 2009 (unofficial)

Regional

• Deutsche Amateurmeisterschaft:
  • Runners-up (1): 1963

• Amateuroberliga Niedersachsen-Ost (II):
  • Winners (3): 1952, 1954, 1963

• Regionalliga Nord (II):
  • Runners-up (1): 1970

• Oberliga Nord (III):
  • Winners (2): 1991, 1992
  • Runners-up (3): 1976, 1978, 1988

Youth

• German Under 19 championship
  • Winners (2): 2010–11, 2012–13
  • Runners-up (1): 2007–08

• Under 19 Bundesliga North/Northeast
  • Winners (4): 2007–2008, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13

• Under 17 Bundesliga North/Northeast
  • Winners (1): 2009

Players

First team squad

For recent transfers, see List of German football transfers summer 2014 and List of German football transfers winter 2014–15.

As of 30 January 2015

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Diego Benaglio (captain) 2 DF Patrick Ochs 3 FW Nicklas Bendtner 4 DF Marcel Schäfer 5 DF Timm Klose 7 MF Daniel Caligiuri 8 MF Vieirinha 9 MF Ivan Perišić 10 MF Aaron Hunt 12 FW Bas Dost 14 MF Kevin De Bruyne 15 DF Christian Träsch 17 MF André Schürrle

No. Position Player 20 GK Max Grün 21 GK Patrick Drewes 22 MF Luiz Gustavo 23 MF Josuha Guilavogui (on loan from Atlético Madrid) 24 DF Sebastian Jung 25 DF Naldo 26 DF Felipe 27 MF Maximilian Arnold 29 MF Zhang Xizhe 30 MF Paul Seguin 31 DF Robin Knoche 34 DF Ricardo Rodríguez 37 DF Moritz Sprenger

Players out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Koen Casteels (at Werder Bremen for the remainder of the 2014–15 season)

VfL Wolfsburg II squad

As of 27 February 2015^[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 21 GK Matthias Hamrol 22 GK Carl Klaus 31 GK Niklas Klinger 2 DF Marvin Kleihs 3 DF Noah Korczowski 4 DF Julian Klamt 13 DF Maximilian Rossmann 18 DF Jonas Sonnenberg 24 DF Hendrik Hansen 25 DF Bjarne Thoelke 28 DF Tobias Henneböle 30 DF Sasa Strujic 7 MF Robert Hermann 8 MF Bastian Schulz

No. Position Player 9 MF Dino Medjedovic 10 MF Amin Affane 11 MF Onel Hernandez 14 MF Pascal Borowski 15 MF Rico Schlimpert 16 MF Dennis Strompen 17 MF Dragan Erkic 26 MF Theodoros Ganitis 27 MF David Chamorro 29 MF Ioannis Masmanidis 12 FW Albion Avdijaj 19 FW Oskar Zawada 20 FW Sebastian Stolze

Manager: Thomas Brdarić

Women's section

The women have won a treble of German League, Cup and the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2012–13. They defended their Champions League title in 2014.

Coaching staff

As of 27 February 2015^[6]

Position	Name
Head coach	Dieter Hecking
Assistant coach	Dirk Bremser
Assistant coach	Ton Lokhoff
Goalkeeping coach	Andreas Hilfiker
Fitness coach	Oliver Mutschler
Fitness coach	Felix Sunkel

Record in Europe

UEFA club rankings

As of 27 February 2015^[7]

Rank	Team	Coefficient
70	Sparta Praha	30.825
71	Fenerbahçe	30.020
72	Udinese	29.568
73	AS Monaco	29.350
74	Everton	27.935
75	Eintracht Frankfurt	27.425
76	Dynamo Moscow	26.433
77	Wolfsburg	25.425
78	Real Sociedad	25.385
79	Ludogorets Razgrad	25.350
80	Standard Liège	25.200

Notable former players

Thomas Brdaric Stefan Effenberg Christian Gentner Klaus Gerwien Willi Giesemann Mike Hanke Roy Präger Tobias Rau Stefan Schnoor Zoltán Sebescen Albert Streit Martin Wagner Andrés D'Alessandro Diego Klimowicz Juan Carlos Menseguez Facundo Hernán Quiroga

Karim Ziani Dietmar Kühbauer Peter Van Der Heyden Junior Malanda Edin Džeko Zvjezdan Misimović Grafite Josué Marcelinho Robson Ponte Marian Hristov Petar Mihtarski Martin Petrov Jean-Kasongo Banza Mario Mandžukić Jesper Christiansen Thomas Kahlenberg

Simon Kjær Peter Madsen Thomas Rytter Claus Thomsen Steve Marlet Levan Tskitishvili Charles Akonnor Isaac Boakye Hans Sarpei Pablo Thiam Ashkan Dejagah Mahmood Ebrahimzadeh Andrea Barzagli Makoto Hasebe Kevin Hofland

Jonathan Akpoborie Obafemi Martins Andrzej Juskowiak Waldemar Kryger Jacek Krzynówek Krzysztof Nowak Dorinel Munteanu Brian O'Neil Miroslav Karhan Chad Deering Mike Lapper Brian McBride Claudio Reyna

Managers

Günter Mettke (1949–..., player-manager) Ludwig Lachner (1954–55) Ernst Sontow (1955–56) Josef Kretschmann (1956–57) Ludwig Lachner (1957) Walter Risse (1957–58) Imre Farkasinszki (1958–59) Ludwig Lachner (July 1, 1963 – June 30, 1966) Imre Farkasinszki (July 1, 1966 – Dec 31, 1974) Fritz Schollmeyer (Jan 1, 1975 – April 29, 1975) Günther Brockmeyer (April 1975 – April 75) Paul Kietzmann (May 3, 1975 – Nov 28, 1975) Radoslav Momirski (Dec 2, 1976 – March 4, 1978) Imre Farkasinszki (March 1978 – Dec 78) Henk van Meteren (Dec 1978 – April 79) Wilfried Kemmer (April 1979 – Oct 83) Template:Country data HPR Imre Farkasinszki (Oct 1983 – June 84) Wolf-Rüdiger Krause (July 1984 – June 88) Horst Hrubesch (July 1, 1988 – June 30, 1989)

Felix Magath led Wolfsburg to win the Bundesliga in 2009 Ernst Menzel (July 1989 – June 91) Uwe Erkenbrecher (July 1, 1991 – Feb 10, 1993) Eckhard Krautzun (Feb 16, 1993 – April 4, 1995) Gerd Roggensack (April 6, 1995 – Oct 22, 1995) Willi Reimann (Oct 23, 1995 – March 17, 1998) Wolfgang Wolf (March 23, 1998 – March 4, 2003) Jürgen Röber (March 4, 2003 – April 3, 2004) Eric Gerets (April 4, 2004 – May 29, 2005) Holger Fach (July 1, 2005 – Dec 19, 2005) Klaus Augenthaler (Dec 29, 2005 – May 19, 2007) Felix Magath (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2009) Armin Veh (July 1, 2009 – Jan 25, 2010) L-G. Köstner (interim) (Jan 25, 2010 – June 30, 2010) Steve McClaren (July 1, 2010 – Feb 7, 2011) P. Littbarski (interim) (Feb 8, 2011 – March 17, 2011) Felix Magath (March 18, 2011 – Oct 25, 2012) L-G. Köstner (interim) (Oct 25, 2012 – Dec 31, 2012) Dieter Hecking (Jan 1, 2013–)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to VfL Wolfsburg.

• Official website (German)

VfL Wolfsburg Information Club Seasons Players Managers Ladies Stadia Volkswagen Arena VfL-Stadion am Elsterweg Matches 1995 DFB Cup Final 2015 DFB Pokal Final

VfL Wolfsburg seasons 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

Bundesliga clubs 2014–15 clubs FC Augsburg Bayer Leverkusen Bayern Munich Borussia Dortmund Borussia Mönchengladbach Eintracht Frankfurt SC Freiburg Hamburger SV Hannover 96 Hertha BSC 1899 Hoffenheim 1. FC Köln Mainz 05 SC Paderborn 07 Schalke 04 VfB Stuttgart Werder Bremen VfL Wolfsburg Former clubs 1860 Munich Alemannia Aachen Arminia Bielefeld Bayer 05 Uerdingen/KFC Uerdingen 05 Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin VfL Bochum Borussia Neunkirchen Darmstadt 98 Dynamo Dresden Eintracht Braunschweig Energie Cottbus Fortuna Düsseldorf Fortuna Köln SpVgg Greuther Fürth Hansa Rostock FC 08 Homburg 1. FC Kaiserslautern Karlsruher SC Kickers Offenbach VfB Leipzig Meidericher SV/MSV Duisburg 1. FC Nürnberg Preußen Münster Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 1. FC Saarbrücken FC St. Pauli Stuttgarter Kickers Tasmania Berlin Tennis Borussia Berlin SSV Ulm SpVgg Unterhaching Waldhof Mannheim Wattenscheid 09 Wuppertaler SV

Regionalliga Nord (IV) 2014–15 clubs Eintracht Braunschweig II FT Braunschweig SV Werder Bremen II BV Cloppenburg ETSV Weiche Goslarer SC 08 Hamburger SV II Hannover 96 II TSV Havelse VfB Lübeck Lüneburger SK Hansa SV Meppen VfR Neumünster Eintracht Norderstedt VfB Oldenburg BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden FC St. Pauli II VfL Wolfsburg II

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