Wolfsburg, champions of the 2008/09 Bundesliga
It is always nice to remember those moments when the least expected teams manage to rise among the powers and become champions. It is something that is seen a little more in football than in other sports and that is also why football is the most popular sport worldwide. This story is about the Wolfsburg side from the 2008-09 season, which managed to win its first and, to date, only Bundesliga title.
History of Wolfsburg
The first version of Wolfsburg emerged in 1938 as a football club for workers from the city of the same name who worked at Volkswagen. Wolfsburg has historically been one of the main examples of works teams in world football and one of those that has remained belonging to the company that originally founded it.With the birth of the Bundesliga in 1963, the club started in the second tier and would later fall to the third tier until in the 90s, it had its turning point that led them to the Bundesliga where, with better or worse results, they have maintained to date. Until 2009, Wolfsburg had not won a major title in its history, something that made the Bundesliga title much more significant.
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Felix Magath
The manager Felix Magath
Felix Magath was a great midfielder during the late 1970's and early 1980's who spent most of his playing career at Hamburg SV, being one of the architects of the club's best historical era when they won three Bundesliga titles, one Cup Winners' Cup title and the European Cup (todays Champions League). To this we must add that he played more than 40 games with the West Germany team shirt, with which he won the 1980 Euro. After retiring due to a knee injury, Magath was general manager at several clubs between 1986 and 1992. In 1995, he would begin his very good career as a manager, precisely at Hamburg SV.In his first teams as a manager, Magath gained a reputation as a "firefighter", that is, a manager to turn to when a club is in difficult times. In his early manager career, he managed Hamburg SV, Nurnberg, Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt. In 2001, he would take charge of Stuttgart, both as manager and director of football, taking the team from a constant relegation candidate to a stable top half of the table team.
When he took over Stuttgart they were in the bottom of the table, but he managed to save the team and in the following seasons they would finish second (classifying the team to the UEFA Champions League) and fourth. In addition, he managed to introduce several players from the club's youth teams such as Andreas Hinkel, Timo Hildebrand, Mario Gómez and Kevin Kurányi, all of whom became internationals with the Germany national team. He also promoted players like Belarusian Alexander Hleb and Philipp Lahm, who both went on to have great careers in top clubs in Europe.
In 2004, Bayern Munich decided to replace the legendary Ottmar Hitzfeld with Magath, achieving significant success since in his first two seasons he would achieve the double (Bundesliga and DFB Pokal). However, a bad start in the 2006-07 season and some differences between the manager and the board were enough for Bayern to decide to fire Magath.
In 2007, he would take the Wolfsburg job, demanding to be both manager and director of football and, according to some sources, wanting to get "revenge" on Bayern for the treatment he received upon being fired.
Season 2008-09
As soon as he arrived, Magath began to bring in players who adapted to his idea of the game, such as Grafite, a tall Brazilian striker who came from the French club Le Mans, Edin Dzeko, at that point a semi-unknown Bosnian striker who came from the Czech league, Josue, Sascha Riether and Marcel Schafer and some that he trusted or that he already knew, as was the case of Christian Gentner.They were all relatively young, although with experience at the highest level and ideal to adopt a game idea that Magath could transmit very well. In the winter transfer window, Diego Benaglio would arrive, the Swiss goalkeeper who played for Magath in Stuttgart and who arrived from Portuguese Nacional to become the first choice between the posts, and the Japanese midfielder, Makoto Hasebe, who would play more than 15 seasons in the Bundesliga.
With this, the team showed substantial improvement as it finished fifth, ten places better than the previous season. However, this was not enough for Magath, hence for the 2008-09 season, he raised the bar a little higher and signed Zvjezdan Misimovic, a Bosnian playmaker born in Germany who was coming off a very good season at Nurnberg and who could be the assistant his strikers needed. Additionally, he added some extra routine to the team by bringing in the Italian 2006 world champions, Cristian Zaccardo and Andrea Barzagli.
The team played with a 5-2-1-2 line-up, with Misimovic behind Dzeko and Grafite, as the main attacking options, a system that at first did not bring the results expected by Magath since until the end of January, the team turned out to play very irregular. However, it was favored because its competitors in the fight for first place, Hertha Berlin and Bayern Munich, also had problems achieving consistency in their results. Starting on matchday 19, Wolfsburg started a strong winning streak that increased their chances of winning the Bundesliga.
Matchday 26
The Volkswagen team arrived at matchday 26 in excellent form and received Bayern Munich. Hertha Berlin, leader of the Bundesliga at that point, one point behind its closest followers (Bayern and Wolfsburg), faced the Borussia Dortmund with a certain Jurgen Klopp behind the wheel (this was his first season at the club). In the Volkswagen Arena match, Magath's team took the lead with a goal from Gentner, although Luca Toni equalized for the Bavarians just before the end of the first half.But, in the second half, both Dzeko and Grafite scored a brace (the second goal from Grafite is one of the best goals in the history of the Bundesliga, see it here), leading to a 5-1 win for Wolfsburg, and Magath was one step closer to consummate his "revenge". Additionally, Hertha lost 3-1 to Dortmund, allowing Wolfsburg to reach the top of the Bundesliga, a position they would not let go of. From there until the end of the championship, Magath's team would continue winning, with the exception of two surprising defeats against Energie Cottbus and Stuttgart.
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