Stuttgart

FC Stuttgart was founded in 1893. Initially it was a rugby sport community with 20 years needed to organize football department. Nowadays there are more than 40,000 members in the Stuttgart Sport Association. It is widely famous due to achievements of the football club which is a fivefold champion of Germany and threefold German Cup winner.

In 1982 Stuttgart finished 9th in Bundesliga and Jurgen Sundermann had to step down for Helmut Benthaus to take the post. Having the new coach the team flourished again winning bronze medals of the national championship the following season. In a year the club became a champion for the 4th time in the history. In 1989 Stuttgart played in the UEFA Cup final but was defeated by Napoli with Maradona horrifying German defense. In 1992 Christoph Daum took over the club and won the championship straight away.

In 1996 a young specialist Joachim Low was assigned for managerial position after being a head coach assistant. That was the beginning of a fast-paced career for the talented man who took over the Germany national team just 10 years later. In 1997 Stuttgart won the German Cup and finished the championship on the 4th position. The team achieved the same result the next season and reached the UEFA Cup Winners Cup final to concede to Chelsea 1-0.

Another coach that did a tremendous work with Stuttgart was Felix Magath who declared a new team structure based on young talented players. Captained by Krasimir Balakov the team developed quickly and finished 2nd in 2004. Alexander Hleb, Kevin Kuranyi, Philipp Lahm and Timo Hildebrand were the leaders of the squad. After ‘the Iron Felix’s’ transfer for Bayern Munich the club kept on focusing on talented rookies.

Magath’s successor Armin Veh guided the team to Bundesliga championship in 2007. Stuttgart’s forward Mario Gomez was awarded the title of the best German football player of the year that season. Before that only Jurgen Klinsmann and Karlheinz Forster had taken this award playing for the club.