TSG 1899 HOFFENHEIM

x in the city

Anyone else notice these lads top of the bundsleiga?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7768679.stm

I managed to blag myself a Hoff scarf from the club a month ago, had a interesting encounter at a train station a few months back , frankfurt fans were mouthing me in german (my other half translated...lol) And she was as shocked as I was, it turned out they saw my Everton scarf and figured I was a Hoffenheim fan (they just lost to them).

The abuse they were giving me was quite bad, and they were neo nazi as well from the look of them, good job it was not our train.....

Later I met more 'normal' frankfurt supporters and they explained the abuse was due to my scarf, even if they colours were just visible.

anonymous_joe

x in the city wrote: »

Anyone else notice these lads top of the bundsleiga?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7768679.stm

I managed to blag myself a Hoff scarf from the club a month ago, had a interesting encounter at a train station a few months back , frankfurt fans were mouthing me in german (my other half translated...lol) And she was as shocked as I was, it turned out they saw my Everton scarf and figured I was a Hoffenheim fan (they just lost to them).

The abuse they were giving me was quite bad, and they were neo nazi as well from the look of them, good job it was not our train.....

Later I met more 'normal' frankfurt supporters and they explained the abuse was due to my scarf, even if they colours were just visible.

Hoffenheim are owned by a (not sure how much he's worth) rich bloke. He's basically put together a fantastic little team, with an innovative coaching team. (Has a guy called Bernhard Peters who used to coach Germany's hockey team or something) They play decent football, but they're basically seen as nouveau riche interlopers and roundly despised.

And that's about where my knowledge of das Bundesliga ends. :pac:

premierstone

x in the city wrote: »

Anyone else notice these lads top of the bundsleiga?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7768679.stm

I managed to blag myself a Hoff scarf from the club a month ago, had a interesting encounter at a train station a few months back , frankfurt fans were mouthing me in german (my other half translated...lol) And she was as shocked as I was, it turned out they saw my Everton scarf and figured I was a Hoffenheim fan (they just lost to them).

The abuse they were giving me was quite bad, and they were neo nazi as well from the look of them, good job it was not our train.....

Later I met more 'normal' frankfurt supporters and they explained the abuse was due to my scarf, even if they colours were just visible.

Jaysus you were lucky they didnt realise it was actually an Everton scarf could of got nasty

~Rebel~

I took a bit of interest in these guys when they came out of nowhere to spend 8mill on Carlos Eduardo who both Milan and Liverpool were after. Bankrolled by one of the founders of SAP who's from the area. Knew they came up last year, but didn't realise how well they were doing in the top flight!

whatawaster

anonymous_joe wrote: »

They play decent football, but they're basically seen as nouveau riche interlopers and roundly despised.

By Bayern Munich fans maybe, but according to the German bloke on the football weekly podcasts, they are well respected. After all, who doesn't like an underdog. The money they have spent has been overwhelmingly on infrastructure and youth development. It's a fantastic model (a copy of Wenger's Arsenal apparently) and they are certainly nothing like Chelsea or City in that regard. If they win the Bundesliga, with a record transfer of 8 million, it would be remarkable, and certainly wouldn't be deserving of accusations that they bought the title.

mike65

The Hoff are the team to watch this season and assuming it dosn't go tits up will be a cracking side in the CL next season. In Germany the whole "new money" thing goes down badly so they were looked down upon but now the neutrals back them, esp against teams like Baron Bayern of Munich

~Rebel~

whatawaster wrote: »

By Bayern Munich fans maybe, but according to the German bloke on the football weekly podcasts, they are well respected. After all, who doesn't like an underdog. The money they have spent has been overwhelmingly on infrastructure and youth development. It's a fantastic model (a copy of Wenger's Arsenal apparently) and they are certainly nothing like Chelsea or City in that regard. If they win the Bundesliga, with a record transfer of 8 million, it would be remarkable, and certainly wouldn't be deserving of accusations that they bought the title.

absolutely. they were the riches of the second division, but it would be a phenomenal achievement to even stay near the top of the bundesliga with how little they've spent on the team relative to the big boys.

Seaneh

Their fullbacks are immense, they play some cracking football.

x in the city

They play at the karl benz stadia but are moving to a new place to sustain their new found fame..:D

Their mega money guy is called Hopp I think. (a opposing team had a flyer recently with Hasta la vista Hopp...)

I was lucky indeed after my encounter, I wont print here what the neo nazi people were saying but it was pretty bad...:eek:

When I got into our 'normal' train it was full or 'normal' frankfurt fans, all boozing and stuff and I told some lads the story with my scarf and they said let me see what team, Oh Everton, they lose but they are ok says dieter...:cool:

Hoffenheim seem to be well liked as I was unable to get any apparel in frankfurt from any sport shop and all the jerseys are sold out also even from a uk site.

I did manage to blag a beanie and a scarf from the offical site

the woman write me a letter and at the end says in german, 'have fun with your scarf'

lol what fun can you have with a scarf...

mmmmmm:rolleyes:

yabadabado

i have seen them on setanta a few times they play good football .carlos eduardo looks good and they have a fella upfront called ibisevic who is banging in the goals 18 in 16 games.

thusspakeblixa

Upstart Hoffenheim annoy the bollix out of us Stuttgart fans as well.
I was over there recently- they've even displaced Bayern

invincibleirish

More a St. Pauli fan myself, who cant like a team loved by crusties everywhere?

Watched Munich/Hoffenheim at the weekend, great game, loving the German league this season (thank you box).

anonymous_joe

whatawaster wrote: »

By Bayern Munich fans maybe, but according to the German bloke on the football weekly podcasts, they are well respected. After all, who doesn't like an underdog. The money they have spent has been overwhelmingly on infrastructure and youth development. It's a fantastic model (a copy of Wenger's Arsenal apparently) and they are certainly nothing like Chelsea or City in that regard. If they win the Bundesliga, with a record transfer of 8 million, it would be remarkable, and certainly wouldn't be deserving of accusations that they bought the title.

I like Raphael. ^^

But Germans aren't as enamoured of plucky underdogs as we are. Was talking to some lads I used to play games with a while back and they were a tad disapproving of a team doing what Hoffenheim are doing.

I quite like them if I'm honest, they're pretty cool really. German football needs a renaissance anyway, and teams like Hoffenheim can't hurt.

mike65 wrote: »

The Hoff are the team to watch this season and assuming it dosn't go tits up will be a cracking side in the CL next season. In Germany the whole "new money" thing goes down badly so they were looked down upon but now the neutrals back them, esp against teams like Baron Bayern of Munich

Very true. I think they're finally beginning to be liked.

Diabhal Beag

Hopefully they can finish in the top 3 as I think they will run out of steam soon.

JPA

Here's a video from the BBC about them,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7768679.stm

UnitedIrishman

Watched a bit of them on Setanta this year. They look a right good team and this Ibisevic lad up front looks a fairly good player - a proper poacher with something like 18 goals in 16. Anyone who does that in any league demands respect and I wouldn't be surprised to see a bigger club coming in for him.

DubDani

Great team to watch.

The interesting thing is that Hopp finances more the club infrastructure then the team itself. He completely financed the new stadium, the immense scouting system they put up and the biulding of the youth academy. He wants to set the club up for the future and make them completely independent of his money.

Their youth teams are currently some of the best in germany. They haven't spent any money on "finished" stars so far. They bought only young german prospects that could be developed long term and a few big international prospects that were seens as a "good investment" for the future.

The good thing is that they have a very young team (average age below 22) and won't need to sell anyone if they don't want to. Will be interesting to see how they develop further.

thusspakeblixa

They remind me of Wexford Youths
:pac:

Mitch Connor

The guy who owned them was one of th ehigher ups in SAP and made his money there. Last season, in the German second division, they outspent every team in germany apart from maybe Munich, not sure on them.

Third_Echelon

Yeah, I've heard quite a bit about these boys as I work for SAP. I try to catch the Bundesliga stuff on setanta as I find it quite an entertaining league.

Dietmar Hopp is one of the founders of SAP, and a pretty rich bloke as you can imagine.... Bought them in 1990 and has built them up to the top of the bundesliga.

Nice to see a team come up through the leagues like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietmar_Hopp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein-Neckar-Arena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSG_1899_Hoffenheim

Mitch Connor

Third_Echelon wrote: »

Yeah, I've heard quite a bit about these boys as I work for SAP. I try to catch the Bundesliga stuff on setanta as I find it quite an entertaining league.

Dietmar Hopp is one of the founders of SAP, and a pretty rich bloke as you can imagine.... Bought them in 1990 and has built them up to the top of the bundesliga.

Nice to see a team come up through the leagues like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietmar_Hopp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein-Neckar-Arena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSG_1899_Hoffenheim

I'm gonna tell HR to track you down.....