From the fourth tier to the top of the Bundesliga
Just over four years ago, SV Elversberg were winning the Regionalliga Sudwest, one of Germany’s fourth-tier leagues. On Sunday, the club host Bayern Munich, 35-time German champions and six-time European champions.
Waldstadion an der Kaiserlinde now holds 10,000 and is due to reach 15,000 once the work is finished. Enough to fit every resident of Spiesen-Elversberg, a town of 13,000 people just north-east of Saarbrucken.
Promotion to the 2. Bundesliga came in 2022-23. Then came the setback in 2024-25, with a play-off defeat to Heidenheim by an aggregate score of 4-3. The payback arrived a year later: second behind Schalke, ahead of Paderborn on goal difference, and up automatically.
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Two games, two wins, seven goals
The fixture list did not exactly go easy on them. For their first ever Bundesliga game, Elversberg faced Bayer Leverkusen, champions two years ago. The newcomers were 2-0 up after nine minutes through Lukas Petkov and Cole Campbell, before a third from David Mokwa just after the break opened it up further. Patrik Schick and then Christian Kofane, deep into stoppage time, dragged Leverkusen back to 3-2. Elversberg held on.
At Monchengladbach, the script flipped twice. Trailing 3-1 in the 56th minute, the newcomers hit back through Maurice Krattenmacher and Felix Keidel, before Krattenmacher snatched the winner in stoppage time.
The club are now only the sixth side in Bundesliga history to win their first two matches in the top flight, and just the second since 2000. Their seven goals are a record for a promoted team after two rounds. The table does the rest: Elversberg sit above Bayern, who were held 0-0 at Schalke.
Vincent Wagner, boldness as a game plan
The Opta Power Rankings tell the story better than most. In summer 2022, Elversberg were barely inside the world’s top 2,000, out of more than 13,000 ranked teams. They are now 127th, ahead of Anderlecht and Fiorentina. Bayern, meanwhile, are second.
Since arriving in June 2025, Vincent Wagner has backed an attack-minded style to the hilt. “I’d rather lose 4-0 bravely than sit back and lose 1-0,” he told the Bundesliga website. The downside is already clear: five goals conceded in two matches.
Wagner will be stuck in the stands on Sunday after picking up two yellow cards at Gladbach.
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