Waldhof Mannheim
Full nameSportverein Waldhof Mannheim 07 e.V.
Nickname(s)Waldhof Buben (The Waldhof Boys)
Founded1907
GroundCarl-Benz-Stadion
Capacity25,667
ChairmanBernd Beetz
ManagerRüdiger Rehm
League3. Liga
2022–233. Liga, 7th of 20
WebsiteClub website

SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over 2,400.

History

The club was founded 1907 and played in the second division of the Westkreis-Liga before the First World War. Waldhof became part of the Kreisliga Odenwald in 1919 and won this league in 1920 and 1921. In each of those seasons, the club failed to advance in the Southern German championship because it was grouped with all-powerful 1. FC Nürnberg at the time. The club took a Bezirksliga Rhein championship in 1924 before joining the Bezirksliga Rhein-Saar in 1927, where it won five out of the next six division titles without ever performing particularly well in the Southern championship.

Its enjoyed its best performances in the Gauliga Baden, one of sixteen top-flight divisions established through the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. Waldhof dominated the division through the 1930s and into the early 1940s, capturing the title five times. They were unable, however, to translate that into success at the national level. Their best result came in 1940 when they went out in a semi-final against FC Schalke 04, the dominant side of the era, before settling for fourth place after losing a consolation round match to Rapid Vienna.

Historical chart of Waldhof Mannheim league performance

After World War II, Waldhof competed in the Oberliga Süd, where they earned mid-table results until being relegated to the 2nd Oberliga Süd in 1954. They bounced up and down between first and second division play until the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, in 1963. The next season saw them in the tier II Regionalliga Süd alongside local rivals VfR Mannheim. A string of unimpressive results finally led to relegation to the Amateurliga Nordbaden (III) in 1970.

SV Chio Waldhof Mannheim ca. 1972–78.

Support from a new sponsor, the snack chip maker Chio, revived the team and helped their return to the second division where they played as SV Chio Waldhof Mannheim from 1972 to 1978. They continued to play as a middling side there until they broke through to the Bundesliga in 1983. Waldhof spent seven seasons in the top flight until a 17th-place finish saw the club relegated at the end of the 1989–90 season. They played for seven seasons as a 2. Bundesliga club until slipping to the Regionalliga Süd for two seasons in 1997–99. A merger with VfR Mannheim was considered in 1998 but the club walked away from a deal at the last minute. Their return to the 2. Bundesliga in 1999 after a season-long struggle with Kickers Offenbach was cut short in 2003 when financial irregularities saw the German Football Association deny the team a licence, dropping them to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (IV). Another attempt at a merger with VfR failed that same year. The club played in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg until 2007–08, when a third-place finish allowed them to qualify for the Regionalliga.

After coming fourth in the Regionalliga Süd in 2008–09, the club moved to the Regionalliga West in 2009–10 to balance out the three Regionalligas.[1]

Waldhof again had their licence withdrawn in 2010 and were demoted back to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg, now the fifth level of German football, despite having finished clear of the relegation zone with the league's smallest budget. Waldhof spent only one year in the Oberliga, winning the league in 2010–11 and advancing directly back to the Regionalliga. On 11 June 2011 they defeated FV Illertissen 6–0 in their final league match to clinch promotion and also set a new fifth division attendance record of 18,312. It surpassed the previous record, the 2009 Leipzig derby, by more than 3,000 spectators.[2]

At the end of the 2011–12, season the club was grouped into the new Regionalliga Südwest, which replaced the Regionalliga Süd in the region. Waldhof won the league in 2015–16 but lost to Sportfreunde Lotte in the promotion round. They also lost promotion play-offs in the following two seasons after finishing second in the Regionalliga Südwest, to Meppen on penalties in 2017 and to KFC Uerdingen in 2018 after crowd disturbances caused the second leg to be abandoned while Waldhof were losing 3–1 on aggregate.[3] In the 2018–19 season, the team secured the Regionalliga Südwest championship and direct promotion to the 3. Liga on the 30th matchday with a 1–0 home win over Wormatia Worms.[4]

Players

Current squad

As of 10 January 2024[5]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Germany GER Jan-Christoph Bartels
3 DF Germany GER Julian Riedel
4 DF Germany GER Tim Sechelmann
5 DF Germany GER Marcel Seegert (captain)
7 MF Germany GER Bentley Baxter Bahn
8 MF Germany GER Fridolin Wagner
9 FW Greece GRE Minos Gouras
10 FW Germany GER Pascal Sohm
11 FW United States USA Jalen Hawkins
13 FW United States USA Terrence Boyd
14 FW Germany GER Kevin Goden
15 DF Germany GER Malte Karbstein
17 FW Germany GER Samuel Abifade
18 DF Luxembourg LUX Laurent Jans
No. Pos. Nation Player
19 FW Germany GER Jesaja Herrmann
20 MF Germany GER Per Lockl
21 MF Germany GER Julian Rieckmann
22 FW Republic of the Congo CGO Yann Mabella
23 FW Austria AUT Angelo Gattermayer
25 DF Germany GER Luca Bolay
26 DF Algeria ALG Madéno Albenas
27 GK Germany GER Malwin Zok
28 DF Germany GER Jonas Carls
30 GK Germany GER Lucien Hawryluk
32 FW Nigeria NGA Kennedy Okpala
33 MF Turkey TUR Berkan Taz
36 FW Austria AUT Kelvin Arase

Reserve team

The SV Waldhof II, historically also referred to as SV Waldhof Amateure, rose to the tier-IV league Verbandsliga Nordbaden in 1986 and remained there until gaining promotion to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg in 2001. After two seasons in the Oberliga with good results, the team had to be withdrawn due to the forced relegation of the first team. In the 2007–08 season, the team narrowly missed out on Verbandsliga promotion when it finished second on equal points to the SV Sandhausen II.[6]

Honours

The club's honours:

  • ‡ Won by reserve team.

Recent managers

Recent managers of the club:[7][8]

Manager Start Finish
Uwe Rapolder 29 March 1997 12 November 2001
Walter Pradt 12 November 2001 3 December 2001
Andy Egli 6 December 2001 10 September 2002
Walter Pradt 11 September 2002 2 April 2003
Stefan Kuntz 3 April 2003 26 May 2003
Viktor Olscha 27 May 2003 30 June 2004
Eugen Hach 1 July 2004 3 November 2004
Maurizio Gaudino 4 November 2004 6 January 2005
Slavko Petrović 7 January 2005 22 December 2005
Massimo Morales 23 December 2005 30 June 2006
Steffen Menze 1 July 2006 20 September 2007
Alexander Conrad 21 September 2007 30 June 2009
Walter Pradt 1 July 2009 30 June 2010
Reiner Hollich 1 July 2010 2 April 2013
Andreas Clauß 3 April 2013 30 June 2013
Kenan Kocak 1 July 2013 2 July 2016
Gerd Dais 7 July 2016 16 October 2017
Michael Fink 16 October 2017 3 January 2018
Bernhard Trares 4 January 2018 4 July 2020
Patrick Glöckner 20 July 2020 4 May 2022

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:[9][10]

Key

↑ Promoted ↓ Relegated

Rivals

Waldhof have a fierce rivalry with 1. FC Kaiserslautern. However, due to the league gap between the two sides, the rivalry was rarely competed until the 2019–20 season, where the two sides met for the first time in 22 years in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. Past meetings between the two have resulted in violence between the two sets of supporters, as well as between supporters and police. Another incident before a derby saw weapons seized by police.[11]

Waldhof also share smaller rivalries with Kickers Offenbach[12] and Mannheim city-rivals VfR Mannheim.

Stadium

SV Waldhof plays its home games at the Carl-Benz-Stadion, which holds 27,000 and opened in 1994.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Der SVW spielt im Westen (in German) kicker sportmagazin, published: 15 June 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009
  2. ↑ Sebert will "absolut regionalligataugliche" Spieler (in German) kicker.de, published: 14 June 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011
  3. ↑ Westhoff, Shea (6 June 2018). "Das komplizierte DFB-Urteil im Fall KFC Uerdingen". Die Welt. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  4. ↑ Aufstieg perfekt! Waldhof Mannheim nächste Saison in der 3. Liga (in German) Südwestrundfunk, published: 20 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019
  5. ↑ "Profis". SV Waldhof Mannheim. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  6. ↑ "Table of the Landesliga Rhein/Neckar". Fussball.de. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
  7. ↑ Waldhof Mannheim .:. Trainer von A-Z (in German) weltfussball.de. Retrieved 17 April 2018
  8. ↑ Gerd Dais neuer Trainer bei Waldhof Mannheim (in German) swr.de. Retrieved 17 April 2018
  9. ↑ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (in German) Historical German domestic league tables
  10. ↑ Fussball.de – Ergebnisse (in German) Tables and results of all German football leagues
  11. ↑ Franke, Reinhard (30 August 2019). "Das heißeste Derby des Wochenendes". Sport1.de (in German).
  12. ↑ Majic, Danijel (10 March 2014). "Entspanntes Derby". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German).
  13. ↑ Carl-Benz-Stadion (in German) weltfussball.de. Retrieved 18 September 2011
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