What will it take to make 1. FC Kaiserslautern great again?
Kaiserslautern are a sleeping giant in the 2. Bundesliga. But what will it take to awaken the giant and see one of Germany's biggest clubs return to the first division?
There is no doubt that Kaiserslautern are still one of the biggest brands of German football. You can still sense it whenever they play at the Betzenberg, where they drew an average of 40,294 fans per game last season. To put that in perspective, with that average, the Betzenberg ranks among the 50 most visited stadiums on the planet.
Then there is the club’s history. FCK have won four German championships and the DFB Pokal twice. They are also the only club to be promoted from the 2. Bundesliga and win the title the following year. The title in 1998 was also the club’s last title. Those trophies and the fact that Kaiserslautern formed the backbone of the 1954 World Cup-winning team has helped to keep the legend of the club alive to the present day.
For the current generation, working for such a legendary club is both an honor but also a significant responsibility. “It is a huge distinction that the club is still well known around the world,” head coach Dirk Schuster said to Gegenpressing ahead of an international friendly against USL Championship side Louisville City FC. “It is incredible we are still so well known; it emphasizes what a small city like Kaiserslautern, with its almost 100,000 people, have managed to put together. The championships and the long European nights.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Gegenpressing Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.