Ridiculous scorelines, bizarre gaffes, fanatical fans & celebrations with a GOAT… inside Europe’s most bonkers league
IT’S the most bonkers league in Europe… one that makes even our Championship look predictable. A division where the team currently sitting third haven’t won a home game all season. RexFans at Schalke vs FC Nurnberg showed it’s a cracker of a division[/caption] GettyMagdeburg fans haven’t seen their high-fliers win at home all season[/caption] GettyFans let off firebombs when Schalke faced Magdeburg at the Veltins-Arena[/caption] Where 8-3 scorelines are not considered unusual. And where one club hands out free tickets to its fans. Welcome to the wacky world of the German Second Division. While Harry Kane‘s Bayern Munich have made an unsurprising return to the Bundesliga summit, the division below is once again conjuring its unique brand of chaos and craziness. In 20 matchdays this season, the team leading at the top of the table has changed nine times and in mid-December the gap between first and ninth was just three points. Magdeburg, who are now third, have not won a single league game at home this season in nine attempts – yet they topped the division in late January. Cologne currently lead the way. A city famous for its twin-spire cathedral, Lukas Podolski kebab house and bizarre love of Tony Woodcock – they don’t do things by halves when it comes to football. JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS This month they will bring out another outrageous kit to celebrate carnival time (they once finished a season with seven different shirts) and the fans will embark on a week-long party in fancy dress. But for Cologne, that is pretty much the norm. This is the club that has a live billy goat mascot, who arrives for every match with the Rocky theme tune blaring and a line of cheerleaders… and then spends the game grazing on the touchline. Anthony Ujah once ‘celebrated’ a goal by grabbing the horns of Cologne’s famous goat mascot, Hennes GettyHamburg supporters see the famous club languishing in the second tier[/caption] He even unwittingly joined in a goal celebration when former striker Anthony Ujah memorably grabbed his horns a decade ago. Anywhere other than Germany, and you would probably raise an eyebrow. But that is the beauty of the 2. Bundesliga, where every week something bizarre seems to happen. This season, in a match between Magdeburg and Greuther Furth, two penalties were awarded for players inexplicably picking up the ball, believing the whistle had blown. A few years back, VAR awarded a spot-kick to Bochum after a Kiel sub warming up behind the goal put out a leg to stop a wayward shot before it had left the field of play. And Brentford keeper Mark Flekken needs no reminding about the time he turned his back on the action to have a drink, thinking his Duisburg team had scored, only for the goal to be ruled out and Ingolstadt to run down the other end and net themselves. But don’t be fooled into thinking there is a lack of quality. Far from it. Rudi Voller, Jurgen Klinsmann, Marco Reus and Joshua Kimmich are among a host of star names who have all cut their teeth in the German second tier. And a certain Jurgen Klopp made his name there both as a player and manager with Mainz. As for the clubs, it is not just Cologne who are a powerhouse. Brentford keeper Mark Flekken was playing for MSV Duisburg when he famously conceded a goal while getting a drink of water Flekken was left embarrassed when Ingolstadt scored Hamburg, Kevin Keegan‘s old outfit, are second in the table and the other week took 20,000 away fans to another giant Hertha Berlin, resulting in a staggering attendance of 71,500 at the Olympiastadion – which hosted England’s Euro 2024 final against Spain. Former Bundesliga winners Kaiserslautern had plummeted into the third division but are now pushing for a return to the top flight, having gone from ninth to third in the space of a week in early December. Hannover are also knocking on the door, just behind Fortuna Dusseldorf, a club that is once again handing out free tickets to its matches as part of its Fortuna For All initiative. Last season, Dusseldorf trialled it for three games and received 350,000 ticket applications. This season, they extended it to four matches, with the Hamburg game in October attracting 135,000 requests for its 52,000-capacity stadium. And then there’s Schalke. Having reached the Champions League in 2019, they were trounced 7-0 at Manchester City and have lurched from one crisis to another ever since. Schalke, who still count former Everton defender Jonjoe Kenny among their ranks, sat top of the table after the first match of this season. But within a month they were flirting with relegation to the third tier of German football. To put that into perspective, they are the third biggest club in the country, akin to an Arsenal or a Tottenham. And when was the last time you saw Spurs men
IT’S the most bonkers league in Europe… one that makes even our Championship look predictable.
A division where the team currently sitting third haven’t won a home game all season.
Where 8-3 scorelines are not considered unusual.
And where one club hands out free tickets to its fans.
Welcome to the wacky world of the German Second Division.
While Harry Kane‘s Bayern Munich have made an unsurprising return to the Bundesliga summit, the division below is once again conjuring its unique brand of chaos and craziness.
In 20 matchdays this season, the team leading at the top of the table has changed nine times and in mid-December the gap between first and ninth was just three points.
Magdeburg, who are now third, have not won a single league game at home this season in nine attempts – yet they topped the division in late January.
Cologne currently lead the way. A city famous for its twin-spire cathedral, Lukas Podolski kebab house and bizarre love of Tony Woodcock – they don’t do things by halves when it comes to football.
This month they will bring out another outrageous kit to celebrate carnival time (they once finished a season with seven different shirts) and the fans will embark on a week-long party in fancy dress.
But for Cologne, that is pretty much the norm.
This is the club that has a live billy goat mascot, who arrives for every match with the Rocky theme tune blaring and a line of cheerleaders… and then spends the game grazing on the touchline.
He even unwittingly joined in a goal celebration when former striker Anthony Ujah memorably grabbed his horns a decade ago.
Anywhere other than Germany, and you would probably raise an eyebrow.
But that is the beauty of the 2. Bundesliga, where every week something bizarre seems to happen.
This season, in a match between Magdeburg and Greuther Furth, two penalties were awarded for players inexplicably picking up the ball, believing the whistle had blown.
A few years back, VAR awarded a spot-kick to Bochum after a Kiel sub warming up behind the goal put out a leg to stop a wayward shot before it had left the field of play.
And Brentford keeper Mark Flekken needs no reminding about the time he turned his back on the action to have a drink, thinking his Duisburg team had scored, only for the goal to be ruled out and Ingolstadt to run down the other end and net themselves.
But don’t be fooled into thinking there is a lack of quality. Far from it.
Rudi Voller, Jurgen Klinsmann, Marco Reus and Joshua Kimmich are among a host of star names who have all cut their teeth in the German second tier.
And a certain Jurgen Klopp made his name there both as a player and manager with Mainz.
As for the clubs, it is not just Cologne who are a powerhouse.
Hamburg, Kevin Keegan‘s old outfit, are second in the table and the other week took 20,000 away fans to another giant Hertha Berlin, resulting in a staggering attendance of 71,500 at the Olympiastadion – which hosted England’s Euro 2024 final against Spain.
Former Bundesliga winners Kaiserslautern had plummeted into the third division but are now pushing for a return to the top flight, having gone from ninth to third in the space of a week in early December.
Hannover are also knocking on the door, just behind Fortuna Dusseldorf, a club that is once again handing out free tickets to its matches as part of its Fortuna For All initiative.
Last season, Dusseldorf trialled it for three games and received 350,000 ticket applications. This season, they extended it to four matches, with the Hamburg game in October attracting 135,000 requests for its 52,000-capacity stadium.
And then there’s Schalke.
Having reached the Champions League in 2019, they were trounced 7-0 at Manchester City and have lurched from one crisis to another ever since.
Schalke, who still count former Everton defender Jonjoe Kenny among their ranks, sat top of the table after the first match of this season.
But within a month they were flirting with relegation to the third tier of German football.
To put that into perspective, they are the third biggest club in the country, akin to an Arsenal or a Tottenham.
And when was the last time you saw Spurs mentioned in the same breath as relegation…
Despite Schalke’s woes, their attendances still average just over 60,000.
In fact, six clubs average more than 41,000 and as of last weekend, a whopping 5.5million fans had watched a match this season in the division.
And where there are German football fans, there is beer and bratwurst – and lots of it.
Schalke’s stadium, sponsored by brewers Veltins, has its own three-mile long beer pipeline so their long-suffering supporters are never short of a pint, while the club is still backed by a sausage magnate.
The fans aren’t starved of entertainment either.
Ridiculous scorelines and incredible comebacks are a regular occurrence, with the second tier averaging 3.19 goals a game.
Even our wildly unpredictable Championship has managed only 2.48.
On 13 of the 20 matchdays, at least one club scored five goals in a match, and on one of the weeks when it didn’t happen, five teams still netted four each.
Nuremberg’s 8-3 win over Regensburg – a match that was 3-3 in the 58th minute – is still the highest scoring this season.
But there has also been a 5-3 and a 4-4, while 4-3s are as common as a love of lederhosen.
Throw in the fact the average season ticket costs you £170 and you can see the appeal.
So if you like your football fast and frenetic, your beer strong and cheap and your sausages a foot long, you know exactly where to go.
