Football-the sensation is possible: Elversberg’s Bundesliga dream

Horst Steffen has been 56 years old since the beginning of March. Sometimes the coach of SV Elversberg likes to look into the distant future. Especially when his team is particularly interested in him – like last Saturday against Braunschweig. The furious Saarlanders had already shot the final score of 3: 0 between the 11th and the 21st minute, so that their trainer later announced slightly flicker: “If I am very old, I will probably look at these first 20 minutes more often.” The hits were so wonderful.

Hymns on Steffens Ensemble are far from reserved for the protagonist from Elversberg and the surrounding area. You also know the attractive way of playing the sports association, for which Schalke is actually about promotion to the Bundesliga on Sunday. There, Lukas Kwasniok has practiced a similarly brave football since 2021 as Steffen 400 kilometers further southwest. The football teacher also maintains this offensive basic attitude during public appearances. Before the duel between the two clubs at the end of April, Kwasniok emphasized: “Paderborn against Elversberg – that doesn’t sound quite as sexy at first, but is the best in terms of content that the second division has to offer.”

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During this statement, the masterminds of Hamburger SV and 1. FC Köln – two of the largest tankers in the lower house, which are well filled with traditional clubs – have sounded. After all, thanks to its handsome 76 goals, the HSV made it back to the top floor after seven years of abstinence. And Cologne ranges a draw on Sunday in the home game against Kaiserslautern for a direct return.

In terms of self -image, the Rhinelander and the Hanseatic residents feel first class anyway. But because they finally saw this goal in danger, the Cologne bosses went off at the beginning of May chief coach Gerhard Struber and sports manager Christian Keller-and replaced the Austrian trainer with the Friedheim Funkel, which was often tried and tested in delicate cases.

The first game among the 71-year-old Funkel in Nuremberg was won over to the last push. Two days later, striker Tim Lemperle celebrated a little hastily on a party ship in Cologne, and was involved in a physical argument in the course of the evening in a strongly alcoholic state, from which he joined facial injuries. Before the showdown against the Lauterer, who, like Düsseldorf, still had subtle views of the relegation place, so also asked as a crisis manager. And that in a very dangerous mixture: at a Cologne defeat and simultaneous successes by Elversberg and Paderborn in Karlsruhe, the Domstädter would finally fall down to fourth place from second place – and thus completely from the promotion business.

The best prospects for the direct walk into the national Beletage would then have, thanks to the excellent goal difference, SV Elversberg. For the club from the 13,000-inhabitant community of Spiesen-Elversberg, it would be the third promotion in four years. The Saarland would have a first division team again 32 years after the relegation of the 1st FC Saarbrücken. And German football could welcome the smallest Bundesliga location of all time.

All in all, a real sensation attracts this weekend-a scenario that the Elversberger has already paid tribute: this week no journalists were admitted to the training sessions of the Steffen team for the first time. The club sponsored by a pharmaceutical company was also no exception for those from Saarland.

The inquiries came from all over Germany, but actors such as the congenial offensive duo with 18 goal strikers Fisnik Asllani and Muhammed Damar or Elias Baum only get the media to see again at the Ligafinale of the »ELV« in Gelsenkirchen. There could be new opportunities for public training sessions in Elversberg in the next week if the possible relegation against Heidenheim or Hoffenheim is due for the community where there is not even a train station.

The late start on vacation? “It doesn’t matter, even if the season takes four weeks,” says the scoring midfielder Damar and asserts: “I would do everything for the SVE.”