SSV Ulm: A Rising Star in German Professional Football

2023-10-14 10:00:00

Where does the new SSV path lead?

If Markus Thiele wants to describe the amazing journey of his club, he uses a catchy formulation. He describes SSV Ulm as a “start-up with tradition behind it”, which – in this young season – is one of the biggest surprises in German professional football. Having only been promoted in the summer, the “Spatzen” already have 20 points in their account after six wins and two draws and have thus taken second place in the 3rd league: The reigning champions of the Regionalliga Südwest are currently in a promotion place and are on course towards that 2nd Bundesliga.

“We have lean structures, but we are just now noticing what power the club can develop with appropriate sporting success,” says the SSV managing director before the preliminary highlight of the season. On Sunday, front-runners Dynamo Dresden will be playing in the long-sold-out Donaustadion. With a win, the newcomer could even take the lead in the table. “There is a huge euphoria here, we felt it straight away in the first games,” says captain Johannes Reichert about Ulm’s run, which culminated in last week’s 2-1 win.

Joker Tobias Rühle scored the celebrated winning goal late on at SV Sandhausen – for a team that is almost unchanged compared to last season. With the exception of Léo Scienza, who was signed by 1. FC Magdeburg, all of the starting eleven wore the SSV jersey in 2022/23. “I put our budget at 15th, 16th place in the 3rd league,” says Thiele. Despite players like Reichert, who hasn’t missed a single minute so far, or the best goalscorer Dennis Chessa (five goals), there is no starting group in the Donaustadion, but rather a powerful and homogeneous unit. In the squad value ranking, the SSV is even last with 3.75 million euros – for comparison: their opponent Dresden also occupies a top place there and is second with 7.78 million euros.

What makes Ulm so successful? Christian Kern regularly accompanies the team and sees various reasons for the outstanding start to the season. “Continuity – the starting lineups are similar to those in the regional league. The development of individual players, for example the Chessas. And of course also the luck that the team had in one game or another,” says the editor of “Südwest Presse”.

Unbehaun to Lotka: The 10 most valuable players in the 3rd league

8 Luca Unbehaun – SC Verl – Market value: €650 thousand

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As of: October 8, 2023

8 Lukas Fröde – FC Ingolstadt – Market value: €650 thousand

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8 Dennis Borkowski – Dynamo Dresden – Market value: €650 thousand

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6 Simon Lorenz – FC Ingolstadt – Market value: €700 thousand

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6 Luca Kerber – 1. FC Saarbrücken – market value: €700 thousand

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4 Mika Baur – SC Freiburg II – Market value: €800 thousand

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4 Alessio Besio – SC Freiburg II – Market value: €800 thousand

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3 Maurice Krattenmacher – SpVgg Unterhaching – Market value: €900 thousand

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2 Abdoulaye Kamara – BVB II – Marktwert: $1 million. €

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1 Marcel Lotka – BVB II – Market value: €1.5 million

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The SSV obviously also benefits from the increased but different requirements in the 3rd league. While the club was considered one of the top favorites in the regional league from the start and therefore had to play against defensive opponents, Ulm now has “a completely different role,” as Thiele puts it: “That’s good for us.”

Captain Johannes Reichert and SSV Ulm have made a successful start to the new season

Reichert raves about Ulm coach Wörle: “The face of our success”

Even in the fourth division, the squad planners had the foresight to build on players who could follow the path to eventual promotion – like Thomas Geyer (32), who has 316 third division games under his belt (Stuttgart II, Wiesbaden, Aalen) and is even in sixth place Third division record player lies. In the summer, Ulm strengthened itself with young players such as Max Brandt, who was brought in from northern regional league team Ottensen, or Tom Gaal (Borussia Mönchengladbach, both 22).

Ulms Geyer in 6th place: The record players in the 3rd league

11. Markus Kolke | Current club: FC Hansa Rostock

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286 third division appearances (as of October 13, 2023)

10. David Pisot | Current club: SGV Freiberg

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287 third division appearances

9. Julian Leist | End of career

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288 third division appearances

8. Marcus Piossek | Current club: TuS Bövinghausen

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299 third division appearances

7. Marc Heider | Current club: Sportfreunde Lotte

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314 third division appearances

6. Thomas Geyer | Current club: SSV Ulm

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316 third division appearances

5. David Blacha | End of career

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320 third division appearances

4. Anton Fink | Current club: 1. FC 08 Birkenfeld

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324 third division appearances

3. Alf Mintzel | Current club: TGSV Holzhausen

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325 third division appearances

2. Tim Danneberg | End of career

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332 third division appearances

1. Robert Müller | Current club: HSG Greifswald

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348 third division appearances

But there is another absolute identification figure: Reichert, usually called “Jo” in the club, played for the Bambini at the age of five and has extended his contract until 2026. While the 32-year-old otherwise holds the defense together, he will not be on the pitch on Sunday. Reichert saw his fifth yellow card last matchday and has to watch against Dresden. “When I realized after the Sandhausen game that I would be missing due to suspension, it was extremely bitter,” says the central defender. But: “I have now put it aside.”

In almost every sentence from the Ulm native, you can feel his identification with the city and the club – and Reichert is full of praise for one man in particular: Thomas Wörle. “He is the face of our success. We are incredibly happy that such a trainer is in Ulm. It’s a gift to have him here,” says Reichert – and uses much more than the industry-standard, polite phrases used by a player when talking about his superior.

Since taking office in the summer of 2021, Wörle has meticulously formed an ambitious team that seems to be growing as a result of the higher demands and stronger opponents. Tactical flexibility is the order of the day: while the coach had a four-man defense against defensive teams last year, the three-man defense is now the basis. Journalist Kern identified another feature of success in the “extremely competitive situation”. “There is no team that plays every weekend. The coach wants this competition,” he emphasizes.

Thomas Wörle on the sidelines at SSV Ulm

Wörle, who like Thomas Tuchel comes from Krumbach (speaking of which: Tuchel wore the Ulm jersey as a player in the 1990s), is without question the most exciting figure in the SSV cosmos and – when it comes to titles – definitely the most successful. Cup winner, twice German champion, he was also nominated as FIFA World Coach of the Year and was in the semi-finals of the Champions League: with the women of FC Bayern. He coached the Munich team for a total of nine years.

Formerly a second division player at Offenbach and Fürth, Wörle had to end his active career quite early due to a virus infection and then took over as the successor to his father Günther on the FCB coaching bench. He won almost everything in women’s football, eating with Uli Hoeneß at Tegernsee and celebrating with the then Bayern men’s coach, Pep Guardiola, at Marienplatz. When Ulm was looking for a coach, Myriam Krüger finally made contact: The former Bundesliga player in the service of SC Freiburg, who worked alongside Thiele as managing director, remembered the highly decorated coach.

At the end of the 90s, Ulm managed to move from the regional to the Bundesliga

Values ​​such as respect and honesty determine the actions of the football teacher, still young at 41, who has followed in big footsteps at the Donaustadion: Ralf Rangnick, now Austria’s national coach, is one of his predecessors. When Rangnick explained the back four to the astonished television audience in the “ZDF sports studio” in 1998, he was under contract in Ulm. At the end of the millennium, the “Spatzen” managed to move from the regional league to the Bundesliga.

There is certainly no shortage of spectacular anecdotes from this time. Just think of the 1:9 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen or the four sending-offs in the away game at Hansa Rostock, commented on emotionally and memorably by then SSV playmaker Janusz Góra (“Scandal!”). Bankruptcies and the fall to the top league have characterized the recent past.

The environment and the fans are welcome to dream.

A few days before the Dresden game, Reichert speaks of the “long-awaited” promotion. “After the difficult times, the big goal was always to get back into professional football,” said Ulm’s captain, who, despite the current points tally, doesn’t want to deviate from his original season goal of staying in the league: “The environment and the fans are welcome to dream. We can assess it realistically. Every point we get is a point for staying in the league.”

3rd League: All stadiums 2023/24 according to capacity

20 Victoria Cologne | Stadium in the Höhenberg sports park | Capacity: 8,317

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19 Borussia Dortmund II | Red Earth Stadium | Capacity: 9,999

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18 VfB Lübeck | Stadium at the Lohmühle | Capacity: 10,800

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17 Prussia Münster | Prussia Stadium | Capacity: 12,794

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15 SC Verl | Home Deluxe Arena (in Paderborn) | Capacity: 15,000

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15 1860 Munich | Stadium on Grünwalder Straße | Capacity: 15,000

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14 SpVgg Unterhaching | Unterhaching Sports Park | Capacity: 15,053

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13 Hallescher FC | Leuna Chemical Stadium | Capacity: 15,057

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12 Jahn Regensburg | Jahnstadion | Capacity: 15,210

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11 SV Sandhausen | BWT Stadium at Hardtwald | Capacity: 15,414

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10 FC Ingolstadt | Audi Sports Park | | Capacity: 15,800

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9 1. FC Saarbrücken | Ludwigsparkstadion | Capacity: 16,003

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8 Erzgebirge Aue | Erzgebirgsstadion | Capacity: 16,080

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7 SSV Ulm | Danube Stadium | Capacity: 19,500

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6 RW Essen | Stadium on Hafenstrasse | Capacity: 19,962

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5 SC Freiburg II | Dreisamstadion | Capacity: 24,000

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4 SV Waldhof Mannheim | Carl Benz Stadium | Capacity: 25,721

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3 Arminia Bielefeld | SchücoArena | Capacity: 27,332

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2 MSV Duisburg | Schauinsland Travel Arena | Capacity: 31,502

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1 Dynamo Dresden | Rudolf Harbig Stadium | Capacity: 32,123

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Managing director Thiele puts it similarly: Establish yourself sustainably in professional football, be economically stable, take the next steps without being too euphoric. “Certain role models are clubs like Freiburg, Union Berlin, Regensburg or Heidenheim. But we want to find our own identity and build sustainable, solid structures,” says Thiele.

However, the SSV shows surprising parallels with the recent development of another club. Like Ulm, SV Elversberg was initially runner-up in the Regionalliga Südwest in recent years, and champions a year later. In the 3rd league, the Saarland team got off to an equally furious start last year and, after ten match days, they were in second place as newcomers, which is also what they have in common with the “Spatzen”. It has long been known where the Elversberger path ultimately led: directly to the 2nd league.

Text by Steffen Schneider

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