Professional football is run by the spin-off organizationVfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of theVolkswagen Group.[2][3] Since 2002, Wolfsburg's stadium is theVolkswagen Arena.
The city ofWolfsburg was established on 1 July 1938 under the nameStadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben to accommodate workers for the newly constructedVolkswagen factory, which was intended to produce the KdF-Wagen—later known as theVolkswagen Beetle. The adjacent factory and town were part of a broader initiative to create an affordable car for the German populace during the Third Reich.[4]
The first football club associated with the Volkswagen plant wasBSG Volkswagenwerk Stadt des KdF-Wagen, a typicalworks team of the era. This team competed in theGauliga Osthannover, the top division of regional football, during the1943–44 and1944–45 seasons.[5]
Following the end of World War II, a new club was formed on 12 September 1945, initially namedVSK Wolfsburg. The team adopted green and white as its colors, a tradition that continues to this day. According to club lore, local youth coach Bernd Elberskirch provided ten green jerseys, and white shorts were fashioned from donated bed sheets sewn by local women.
On 15 December 1945, the club faced a significant setback when all but one of its players left to join the newly formed1. FC Wolfsburg. The sole remaining player, Josef Meyer, collaborated with Willi Hilbert to rebuild the team by recruiting new members. The reorganised club adopted the nameVfL Wolfsburg, with VfL standing for Verein für Leibesübungen, which translates to "Club for Physical Exercise."[6]
Within a year, VfL Wolfsburg secured the localGifhorn championship. In late November 1946, the club played a friendly match against the prominentGelsenkirchen teamSchalke 04 at the Volkswagen-owned stadium, marking its emergence as the company's officially supported team.
The club made slow but steady progress[according to whom?] in the following seasons. They captured[tone] a number of[quantify] amateur level championships, but were unable to advance out of the promotion playoffs until finally breaking through[tone] to the top tier Oberliga Nord in 1954 with a 2–1 victory overHeider SV. Wolfsburg, however, struggled in the top flight, narrowly missing relegation each season until finally being sent down in 1959. When Germany's first professional football league, theBundesliga, was formed in 1963, Wolfsburg was playing in the Regionalliga Nord (II), having just moved up from the Verbandsliga Niedersachsen (III), reaching the German Amateur Championship Final that same year (0–1 vs.VfB Stuttgart Amat.).
Wolfsburg remained a second division fixture[vague] over the next dozen[vague] years with their best performance being a second-place finish in 1970. That finish earned the club entry to the promotion round playoffs for the Bundesliga, where they performed poorly[according to whom?] and were unable to advance. From the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s, Wolfsburg played as a third division side in the Amateur Oberliga Nord. Consecutive first-place finishes in 1991 and 1992, followed by success in the promotion playoffs, saw the club advance to the2. Bundesliga for the 1992–93 season.
Wolfsburg continued to enjoy[tone] some success through the 1990s. The team advanced to the final of theGerman Cup in 1995 where they were beaten 0–3 byBorussia Mönchengladbach, but then went on to the top flight on the strength of a second-place league finish in 1997.
Despite their recent promotion, Wolfsburg developed into a mid-table Bundesliga side. In the 1998–99 season, Wolfsburg, underWolfgang Wolf, were holding onto[vague] the fifth spot in the 33rd round of fixtures, and they had hopes of[tone] making fourth place, to gainUEFA Champions League participation. Losing 6–1 away toMSV Duisburg in the final fixture, Wolfsburg finished in sixth place with 55 points and qualified for next season'sUEFA Cup. They also qualified for theIntertoto Cup in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005, enjoying[tone] their best run in 2003 after reaching the final in which they lost to Italian sidePerugia. This was followed by a couple of seasons of little success for the club, just narrowly avoiding relegation with two 15th-place finishes in the2005–06 and2006–07 seasons.
Wolfsburg againstBorussia Dortmund at the Volkswagen Arena in May 2009
For the2007–08 season, the club hired formerBayern Munich managerFelix Magath, with whom they managed to finish in fifth place at the end of the season, the highest finish for the club at the time. This also enabled the Wolves to qualify for theUEFA Cup for only the second time in their history.
In the2008–09 season, under Magath, Wolfsburg claimed their biggest success by winning[vague] their first Bundesliga title after defeatingWerder Bremen 5–1 on 23 May 2009. During this campaign, Wolfsburg equalled the longest winning streak in one Bundesliga season with ten successive victories after the winter break. They also became the only team in the Bundesliga to have had two strikers scoring more than 20 goals each in one season, with BrazilianGrafite and BosnianEdin Džeko achieving this feat in their title-winning season, scoring 28 and 26, respectively, withZvjezdan Misimović adding a record 20 assists.[7] As a result of their title win, Wolfsburg qualified for theUEFA Champions League for the first time in their history.
In the2009–10 season, Wolfsburg dismissed their newly appointed trainerArmin Veh after the winter break due to lack of success,[vague] with the club sitting tenth in the league. In theChampions League, they came third in their group, behindManchester United andCSKA Moscow, losing the chance for a place[tone] in the competition's successive round. As a result, they qualified for the Round of 32 phase of theUEFA Europa League. They defeated Spanish sideVillarreal 6–3 on aggregate and Russian championsRubin Kazan 3–2. In the quarter-finals, however, they were beaten 3–1 by eventual finalistsFulham.
On 11 May 2010, the permanent head coach's position was filled by formerEngland managerSteve McClaren. After having guidedTwente to their first everDutch title, he was rewarded by becoming the first English coach to manage a Bundesliga side. On 7 February 2011, however, it was announced that McClaren had been sacked and thatPierre Littbarski would be taking over.[8] Wolfsburg lost four times in five matches under him and they finally slipped into[tone] the relegation places.
On 18 March 2011, Wolfsburg confirmed that Felix Magath would return as head coach and sporting director, almost two years since he led them to the Bundesliga title and just two days after being fired from his position atSchalke 04. He signed a two-year contract with the club.[9] Magath steered the club to safety, but though the club invested heavily, Magath could only achieve a mid-table finish in the following 2011–12 season. After only five points in eight matches (and no goals and points in the last four games) in the 2012–13 season, Magath left the club by mutual consent, and was temporarily replaced by former Wolfsburg reserve team coachLorenz-Günther Köstner. On 22 December 2012, the former1. FC Nürnberg head coachDieter Hecking was appointed as Wolfsburg's new head coach on a contract lasting until 2016.
The 2015–16 campaign saw Wolfsburg finish in eighth place. The Bundesliga match between Bayern and Wolfsburg saw an extraordinary five goals in nine minutes byRobert Lewandowski.[11] In the Champions League, they reached the quarter-finals for the first time, where they facedReal Madrid and, despite a two-goal aggregate lead from the first match, were eliminated after losing 3–0 at theSantiago Bernabéu Stadium inMadrid.
In January 2017, Wolfsburg signed aletter of intent to partner the American sideChattanooga FC, which includes women's football, youth development and local social responsibility.[vague] The two teams mentioned the future possibility of international friendlies.[12]
Wolfsburg struggled through the 2016–17 season, rotating through several managers and eventually finishing in 16th place in the Bundesliga with only 37 points, putting them in a playoff againstEintracht Braunschweig, which they won 2–0 on aggregate to remain in the top flight.
The 2017–18 season proved to be another disappointing season,[according to whom?] in which they finished 16th place in the Bundesliga, putting them in[vague] a play-off againstHolstein Kiel, a game that they won 4–1 on aggregate.
In the 2018–19 season, Wolfsburg finished 6th in the Bundesliga, thus automatically qualifying for the2019–20 UEFA Europa League.
On 24 May 2022, Niko Kovač was appointed as Wolfsburg's new head coach, with a contract lasting until June 2025, prematurely terminated in March 2024.[15][16]
Wolfsburg plays at theVolkswagen Arena, a multi-purpose stadium which seats a total capacity of 30,000 spectators. Before construction was finished in 2002, Wolfsburg played their home games at the 21,600 capacityVfL-Stadium. The stadium is currently used mostly for the home games of Wolfsburg, and is the site where they won their first Bundesliga title in the 2008–09 season. The amateur squad and thewomen's association football section is playing since 2015 at the newly builtAOK Stadion with a capacity of 5200 people. There is also a new VfL-Center with offices and training areas and the VfL-FußballWelt, an interactive exhibition about the VfL.
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.
Following the death ofJunior Malanda in 2015, the club retired the number 19 shirt.[19] Subsequently, individual players have been nominated by the club to wear that number in his honour. In the2019–20 season,Kevin Mbabu wore it,[20] followed byLovro Majer, and thenJesper Lindstrøm.
