Originally founded in 1899 as a gymnastics club, Hoffenheim came into being in their modern form in 1945. A fifth division side in 2000, the club rapidly advanced through theGerman football league system with the financial backing of alumnus and software mogulDietmar Hopp, and in 2008 Hoffenheim was promoted to the top tierBundesliga. Despite never winning a major trophy, they have experienced success. In the 2017–18 season, Hoffenheim finished third in theBundesliga (their best to date), qualifying for theUEFA Champions League group stage for the first time.
Since 2009, Hoffenheim have played their home games at theRhein-Neckar-Arena (known as PreZero Arena for sponsorship reasons), having previously played at theDietmar-Hopp-Stadion from 1999.
The modern-day club was formed in 1945, when gymnastics clubTurnverein Hoffenheim (founded 1 July 1899) and football clubFußballverein Hoffenheim (founded 1921) merged. At the beginning of the 1990s, the club was a local amateur side playing in the eighth division Baden-Württemberg A-Liga. They steadily improved and by 1996 were competing in theVerbandsliga Nordbaden (V).
Around 2000, alumnusDietmar Hopp returned to the club of his youth as a financial backer. Hopp was the co-founder of software firmSAP and he put some of his money into the club. His contributions generated almost immediate results: in 2000 Hoffenheim finished first in the Verbandsliga and was promoted to the fourth-tierOberliga Baden-Württemberg. Another first-place finish moved the club up to theRegionalliga Süd (III) for the 2001–02 season. They finished 13th in their first season in the Regionalliga, but improved significantly the next year, earning a fifth-place result.
Hoffenheim earned fifth and seventh-place finishes in the next two seasons, before improving to fourth in 2005–06 to earn their best result to date. The club made its firstDFB-Pokal appearance in the2003–04 competition and performed well, advancing to the quarter-finals by eliminating2. Bundesliga sidesEintracht Trier andKarlsruher SC andBundesliga clubBayer Leverkusen before being put out themselves by another 2. Bundesliga side,VfB Lübeck.
Negotiations to merge TSG Hoffenheim,Astoria Walldorf, andSV Sandhausen to createFC Heidelberg 06 in 2005 were abandoned due to the resistance of the latter two clubs, and the failure to agree on whether the new side's stadium should be located inHeidelberg orEppelheim. Team owner Hopp preferred Heidelberg, but could not overcome the resistance of local firmWild, which had already reserved the site of the planned stadium for its new production facilities.
2006–2008: Major investments, promotion to the Bundesliga
In 2006, the club sought to improve its squad and technical staff by bringing in players with several years of Bundesliga experience, most notablyJochen Seitz andTomislav Marić, and young talents likeSejad Salihović, while signing managerRalf Rangnick, who managed Bundesliga teams such asSSV Ulm 1846,VfB Stuttgart,Hannover 96 andSchalke 04, to a five-year contract. The investment paid off in the 2006–07 season with the club's promotion to the 2. Bundesliga after finishing second inRegionalliga Süd.
The2007–08 season was Hoffenheim's first season in professional football. After a weak start with three losses and only one draw in the first four games, the team's performance improved remarkably and Hoffenheim climbed from 16th place on matchday four to second place on matchday 23. The team defended their place until the end of the season, having scored 60 points after matchday 34. As a result of their second-place finish, they received automatic promotion to the Bundesliga, the highest tier in German football, after playing in the 2. Bundesliga for just one season.
2008–present: Growth of the club and Champions League football
Hoffenheim recorded a 7th-place finish in their debutseason in theBundesliga, Germany's top division. The club's best players of the season wereVedad Ibišević andDemba Ba, who scored 18 and 14 goals respectively.[6] In the2009–10 Bundesliga, the club had a less successful season, recording a finish outside of the top 10, finishing 11th.[7] The club finished in consecutive 11th places for the next two seasons.[8][9] In the2012–13 Bundesliga, the club came very close to suffering relegation, after a 16th-place finish, meaning they would have to play in therelegation play-offs to survive; the club went on to beat their opponentsKaiserslautern by a scoreline of 5–2 on aggregate overtwo legs, withRoberto Firmino scoring two goals in the first leg.[10][11][12] In the2013–14 Bundesliga, the club had strange statistics; being the third best goalscoring team in the league, but also the worst defensive team, scoring 72 goals and conceding 70.[13] The club's best goalscorer of the season, also their best assist provider, was Roberto Firmino, scoring 16 goals and providing 12 assists, with the player winning theBundesliga Breakthrough Player of the Season award.[14][15][16] In the2014–15 Bundesliga, the club came very close to qualifying for the Europa League, with just two points separating them fromBorussia Dortmund, who were in 7th place. Despite the 8th-place finish, Hoffenheim still had agoal difference of −6 in the 2014–15 season.[17] In the2015–16 Bundesliga, the club once again came close to suffering relegation, with just one point separating them from the relegation play-offs.[18]
In the2016–17 season, new coachJulian Nagelsmann took over,[19] beginning to recruit several new players, includingAndrej Kramarić,Kerem Demirbay andSandro Wagner.[20][21][22] Initially, the club struggled for form, with four draws in the first four games of the season,[23] before a rise in form rose the club to 3rd place in the league by the end of October.[24] On 4 April 2017, the club beatBayern Munich by a scoreline of 1–0, one of the most significant wins in the club's history.[25] On 21 April 2017, the club confirmed that they would play European football next season following a 1–1 draw withKöln.[26] Following a 4th-place finish in the2016–17 Bundesliga, Hoffenheim qualified for the2017–18 UEFA Champions League.[27] The club were drawn to playsix-time European championsLiverpool in theplay-off round.[28][29] The club lost the first leg by a scoreline of 1–2, before a 4–2 loss in the second leg confirmed Hoffenheim's elimination from the tournament, as the club lost 3–6 on aggregate.[30][31] Due to their elimination from the play-off stages, the club would continue playing European football in theEuropa League group stages; however, the club were eliminated from the tournament as they would finish bottom in the group stage.[32]
In the2017–18 Bundesliga season, Hoffenheim had a successful season, finishing third, automatically qualifying for the next year's Champions League.[33] The2018–19 season was disappointing for Hoffenheim, as they finished bottom of their Champions League group with only 3 draws and 3 losses whilst playingManchester City,Lyon andShakhtar Donetsk. In theBundesliga, Hoffenheim finished in 9th place. The season's top scorer wasAndre Kramarić, with the Croatian netting 22 times in 37 appearances. Nagelsmann left the club to join RB Leipzig at the end of the season.Alfred Schreuder, former assistant coach under Huub Stevens and Julian Nagelsmann was appointed as the new head coach. After one yearSebastian Hoeneß became the new head coach, but he was released in May 2022.André Breitenreiter took over as coach until February 2023 and was followed byPellegrino Matarazzo, who was dismissed in November 2024.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Before being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2008, the club played in theDietmar-Hopp-Stadion, which was built in 1999 with a capacity of 5,000 (1,620 seats).
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim made their ambitions clear in 2006, when the club's management decided to begin building the new 30,150 seatRhein-Neckar-Arena. The stadium was originally to be built inHeidelberg before the selection of a site inSinsheim.
They opened their first season in the Bundesliga at the 26,022 capacityCarl-Benz-Stadion inMannheim, and played their first match in their new stadium on 31 January 2009.[35]
Dietmar Hopp's financial support, which transformed Hoffenheim from a local amateur club into a competitive Bundesliga club, has been strongly criticised by other clubs, fans and some in the German press. The main points of criticism are the club's purported lack of tradition and a historically large fanbase, as the club is a historically insignificant side from a village of just 3,300 inhabitants. This situation is similar to that of now-defunct Scottish sideGretna and German clubsVfL Wolfsburg,Bayer Leverkusen andRB Leipzig, as those teams also received large financial support; Wolfsburg is wholly owned and supported by automobile manufacturerVolkswagen, Bayer Leverkusen by pharmaceutical companyBayer and RB Leipzig byRed Bull.
On 16 August 2011, the club released a statement regarding complaints of a loudspeaker that was strategically placed under away fans during a home game against Dortmund. The loudspeaker was designed to drown out the noise of the away fans cheers and chants during the game. It was reported that the speaker was placed by the groundskeeper, although the club denied any involvement, saying he acted alone. It was also reported that the loudspeaker was used during other games, not just the home game against Dortmund.[36]
In a later statement, the club admitted that the disruptive sound assembly has been used at least five times, although club officials claim to have no knowledge of these measures.
On 29 February 2020,Bayern Munich supporters unfurled an offensive banner aimed at Hoffenheim ownerDietmar Hopp, resulting in the match being suspended with less than 15 minutes left to play. After concerns that the game could be abandoned, both teams returned to finish the match, but had decided to just run down the clock to end the game in solidarity with Hopp. Rather than play on, the two teams began passing the ball between each other and chatting as if they were all teammates.
The very next day, the Bundesliga match betweenVfl Wolfsburg and1. FC Union Berlin was stopped at the 44th minute of play due to derogatory banners once again being unfurled, one of which showed Hopp undercrosshairs. The two teams left the field and returned 10 minutes later to play out the remainder of the 1st half and subsequently the game.[37]
On 25 September 2020, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim signed a partnership agreement withMLS clubFC Cincinnati.[38] Hoffenheim also have a partnership agreement with aGhana Premier League sideAccra Hearts Of Oak, making it a three club value alliance on 20 September 2020.
With the introduction of theRegionalligas in 1994 and the3. Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier. In 2012, the number of Regionalligas was increased from three to five with all Regionalliga Süd clubs except the Bavarian ones entering the newRegionalliga Südwest.[citation needed]
Hoffenheim made their debut in European competition in 2017, qualifying for the play-off round of the2017–18 UEFA Champions League play-offs. Their first match was on 15 August 2017, losing the first leg of the play-offs 2–1 toLiverpool.
