(Drivebycuriosity) - If you are interested in football, in the US known as soccer, you might follow Deutsche Bundesliga. Then you might know clubs with huge budgets like Bayern München, Dortmund, Red Bull Leibzig, VFL Wolfsburg (owned by Volkswagen) or Bayer Leverkusen, owned by pharma giant Bayer. But since summer 2023 there exists also a micro-budget club: 1. FC Heidenheim 1846, at home in a tiny industrial town (50,000 residents) between Stuttgart and Munich. The club isn´t supported by the fan base of a big city, neither are there huge sponsors. Anyway, they established themselves - by staying there without relegations - and will start their third Bundesliga season coming August.
Heidenheim`s success was made by Frank Schmidt, the lead coach of the club. In 2007, Schmidt, a former soccer player, who also is educated in banking (Bankkaufmann), took the lead of Heidenheim when they played just in Germany´s Oberliga, the fourth tier of the professional system. Since then he led the club upwards, even with tiny budgets, and reached Bundesliga in summer 2023. And - contrary to other coaches - he never suffered a relegation.
Combative Mindset
In his autobiography "Unkaputtbar" Schmidt tells the club`s history and explains his concept ( amazon). The word means "indestructible", contrary to the German term "kaputt gehen" - a quote by another German football coach, who praised Heidenheim`s & Schmidt`s very combative mindset.
According to Schmidt, Heidenheim`s sociological & economical background is shaped by the climate (highest and coldest stadium in German professional football) and the frugal regional "Swabian" mentality. Because Heidenheim relies on a tiny budget, the club could not keep top players for long. If one of them got attention, for instance as goal shooter, a bigger club wanted to buy him (the contract between club & player). These transfers supported the finances of the little club.
The first Bundesliga season after Heidenheim`s promotion went surprisingly well. On match day 34, the last of the season, the club finished on place 8 - out of 18 -, that permitted them to participate in the Conference League, a pan-European tournament, where they competed against Chelsea and 7 more European teams.
Unfortunately some transfers created a crisis in Heidenheim´s second Bundesliga season, that ended this week. Summer 2024 the management sold attacker Tim Kleindienst plus winger Jan-Niklas Beste to other clubs. Kleindienst went to Borussia Mönchengladbach (for €7 Mio.) and Beste joint Benfica Lissabon (for €8 Mio.), a club that participates in the European Champions League. Beste/Kleindienst had been the perfect soccer duo. Beste used to pass free kicks or corner shots straight to Kleindienst, often toward his head, who shot the ball straight into the opponent`s box.
Struggling To Adapt
Heidenheim tried to replace the duo with other - much cheaper - players, like Leo Scienza, who had been top scorer in the third league with SSV Ulm 1846 and had helped his club to advance to second league. Heidenheim paid just €600,000, but unfortunately Scienza struggled to adapt to Bundesliga and coach Schmidt kept him most time on the bench.
Thanks to the player sales in summer 2024 - and the extra strain from 10 matches in the Conference League - in season 2 Heidenheim accomplished just 3 Bundesliga home wins and finished on place 16 with just 29 points and a goal difference of minus 27. Being the No. 16 the club had to defend their Bundesliga spot in a relegation game against the No. 3 of the second league, SV Elversberg, that happened in 2 legs, Thursday May 22 and Monday May 26.
Last Minute Save
The first leg ended 2:2, but Heidenheim won the second 2:1 (4:3 in aggregate) thanks to a last minute goal by Scienza, who already assisted to the other 3 Heidenheim goals. Coach Schmidt had started without him in the first leg, but reactived Scienza after half-time break because Elversberg led 2:0. Scienza´s goal and his assists finally saved Heidenheim´s Bundesliga participation.
Falling back to the second league could have reduced Heidenheim`s annual media-income (TV & global streaming) by about €40 Mio ( kicker.de). So Scienza justified the €600,000, that Heidenheim hat paid for him, by far. Let´s hope that the frugal management does not sell this gem, who´s contract runs through summer 2027, too soon.
Good luck to Schmidt and 1. FC Heidenheim.
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