In the 2008/09 season, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim achieved something historic by winning the fall championship. What followed was the deepest fall of a half-season champion ever. Do you still know?

It was almost like a fairytale: TSG 1899 Hoffenheim celebrated their promotion to the first Bundesliga in 2008. Within 17 years, the club had made the leap from the district to the Bundesliga. A success for the club’s history.

On August 16, 2008, Hoffenheim celebrated its first victory in the first Bundesliga match in its history. An impressive 3:0 win against Energie Cottbus marked the start of a remarkable first half of the season. However, as high as the flight may go, it also comes to an end at some point. An end that was to be brutal in the case of TSG.

With the help of investments in the hundreds of millions from the father of success, patron Dietmar Hopp, TSG has shaped its team over the years. With new signings such as Luiz Gustavo, who had just turned 21 at the time, Andreas Beck and Wellington, the Sinsheimers formed a young, hungry team for their first season in the German top flight.

Modesty was not the order of the day for Hopp. He was already secretly dreaming of Europe. Successful coach Ralf Rangnick, who was to play a major role in TSG’s future success, was keen to reassure: “We’re not dreaming of Europe even now. We’ll enjoy what we’ve achieved for a few days and then we’ll concentrate fully on preparing for the new season.” Unsuspecting what this season would have up its sleeve

Who remembers the magic triangle of the Sinsheim success story: Sejad Salihovic, Vedad Ibisevic and Demba Ba. Probably the key players of the first half of the season. The trio scored 48 (!) points (Ibisevic 25, Salihovic 12 and Ba 11) in the first half of the season and helped to pull off the huge surprise. TSG went into half-time in the Bundesliga as the fall champions (35 points).

Hopp was euphoric after this stage victory: “I’m not saying we’ll be German champions. But we will stay at the top. We deserved to be champions in the fall – it wasn’t as if we’d achieved that with a few wins. We are a force to be reckoned with. “

With Ibisevic’s cruciate ligament rupture on January 15, 2009, the top striker’s season was over – the start of a horror second half for Hoffenheim.

In the second half of the Bundesliga season, TSG picked up just 20 points from 17 games and finished seventh in a season that had turned from fairytale to nightmare. In the end, they did not even make it into a European competition – nobody can beat that result. The worst fall champion in the history of the Bundesliga is TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Do you know?