The German Luton Town

Luton Town captivated hearts all over the world for their amazing climb up the English leagues back to the top flight, but what if I told you there was another team that just broke into the top five leagues and less than 20 years ago, they were in the 5th division too. Oh also, this team? They have never been in the top flight of their country before, until now.

Germany has produced some insane stories of club growth from Leipzig to Hoffenheim, but without an injection of serious cash, it’s basically someone pupeteering a football manager run up through the divisions. For this club, the puppeteer is their actual manager, who has been in charge for the entirety of their run to the Bundesliga.

Much Love,
The Zealand

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#Heidenheim #Football #Soccer #Hashtags

[ThaGamingMisfit]

I thought Club Legends only really existed in FM. Frank Schmidt proves me wrong. From being a player to coach in 5th/6th division into the Bundesliga is absolutely legendary.

[deletedchannel]

And people say football manager is unrealistic

[pop]

Fun fact: The coach Frank Schmidt was born only 300m away from the stadium, in the hospital of Heidenheim next to the stadium

[Papabeartheo]

As a football fan I love this
As a Hamburg fan I want to die

[johnny]

20 years ago my dad took me to a game of our smalltown Club in division 5. I was only 5 years old and had a season ticket ever since. Two weeks ago I watched our club going up to the Bundesliga. Sadly my dad passed years ago and could not witness this miracle. I hope he watched it from heaven 🖤

[jonande]

Heidenheim and Union Berlin make me believe that all Football Manager saves could one day become reality.

[JUmAHQ]

As a Hamburg fan this was kind of painful to watch. Heidenheim denied us two promotions in the span of three years. But honestly, I really like Heidenheim. It is such a fairytale story and I will definately root for them next season!

[kickerich]

Great to see this story covered. Here in Germany sadly many football-romanticians are tilted bc in their opinion "Heidenheim takes away a Bundesliga-Spot from Traditional Clubs like HSV/noone needs them here, ...", which is quite absurd ngl. I'm just happy a new face is presenting itself in the highest league

[piekay]

Frank Schmidt originally was asked to take over the position of coach for two games, while they searched for a new coach, then he got asked to sign a contract for 6 months. After securing promotion his position was never questioned again and he actually got offered a lifetime contract by the club, which he refused, because „that wouldn’t fit football“.

Edit: the lifetime contract was mentioned near the end

[MrJamier]

I want to try keep them in the Bundesliga in FM24 after seeing this...but I cannot fill the shoes of Frank Schmidt

[lightsoul]

I was in Sandhausen when the Hamburg fans thought the were getting promoted only then to realize the Heidenheim game is still on. Because of the bad internet connection there (germany an their internet -_-) nearly no one could find out about the score of the Heidenheim match. At some point a dude next to me finally was able to get a live update and told me Heidenheim had just won.
Im kind of sad for Hamburg that they didnt make it, because they have a huge fan base and the HSV would suit the Bundesliga well. Nevertheless Heidenheim have definetely earned their promotion, also taking in consideration they pulled it of with only a fraction of the money the HSV has to operate with

[antoniopuccia]

As someone born and raised in Heidenheim what Frank Schmidt achieved is one of the biggest feats of german football. Thank God there are some great content creators shedding a little bit of light on our beautiful FCH because a lot of people just see its a small club and hate unnecessarily.

[schlaepp]

It was around ten years ago when my granddad and my dad took me to the Voith Arena for the first time (actually that was my first time in a football stadium ever). They still played in the third division at that time. I remember us joking about Heidenheim getting promoted to the Bundesliga because it seemed to be so unlikely back then. Little did we know what would happen 10 years later... Seeing the football club I love since i was a child achieve this makes me so emotional. I basically grew up simultaneously with the club. No matter what happens next season there will never be a football club i can feel so connected to. ❤💙

Thank you for this great coverage. This is my first time watching a video on your channel and I can say confidently that it wont be the last. 😉

[QuarterMag]

Heidenheim just today won their first match in the Bundesliga on the exact date where Schmidt startet hid coaching career 16 years ago 😊❤

[diogobarrote]

It's not a non-familiar face to professional leagues in Portugal, but Belenenses is also writing a beautiful story here! Belenenses is one of the most historic teams in Portugal, being the 5th team with the most titles, including the League and the Portuguese Cup and even being invited by Real Madrid to play the first game at Santiago Bernabeu. However, in 2018, Belenenses members took a bold move and split from the investors' team: Belenenses SAD (now known as B SAD), deciding to restart at the bottom of Portuguese football: the 7th division (amateur Lisbon regional league). Fast forward to 2023, last month they just celebrated the promotion to the 2nd League (already a professional competition), having achieved 5 consecutive promotions, equalling the world record... If they repeat this next season, they will break it and will be the first team in the world to come straight from the last division to the first one! Impressive

[robertro-ytb]

There is also a club in Romania named FC Hermannstadt, which was founded in 2015 and promoted from lowest league in Romania straight to Liga 1 (now named Superliga) earning the promotion in every year until they reached in the first league

[Daixtey]

Fun fact Zealand: You were kinda spot on with your "Darmstadt apparently partied too hard after winning promotion", the team after the 33rd matchday did go on a 3 day trip to Mallorca celebrating their promotion to the Bundesliga, they did for a long time plan to go to Ibiza though but one of their midfield players said after the game "Ibiza? Nah the boys would not be fitting in there, so we go to Mallorca there we could fit in, there we could feel at home."

[timenzngr]

Greetings from Heidenheim! Franky is a legend here. We tripled our amount of members from 3000 to 9000 this year and our Voith Arena is always sold out. Currently we are on the upper half of the Bundesliga ranking (Place 9). It is our season our year

[malvo]

It's so crazy to see other people talking about my hometown club :D I grew up like 5 Minutes away from the stadium.

[SHYNJII]

Legendary story.. i saw the complete Conference of the games .. it was incredible. But if you look at all German Leagues, you will see that this year was in every league a crazy ending ... i dont wanna talk about that as a Dortmund Fan.