Elversberg's Bundesliga miracle: How tiny village team is taking German football by storm after unlikely rise up the leagues
Elversberg were playing regional football in the fourth tier in 2022 but have now won their first two Bundesliga matches; Adam Bate goes to see them and speaks to technical director Josef Welzmuller to find out more; "It sounds like magic or a fairytale," says Welzmuller
Monday 7 September 2026 08:13, UK
When Elversberg achieved the unlikeliest of promotions to the Bundesliga, this village team just north east of Saarbrucken knew their predicament. Their analysis told them that the key to staying up was to change their style of play. They opted to ignore it.
Eschewing the percentage football that they themselves noted had worked for Hamburg upon their return last season, Elversberg decided to double down. They are sticking to the principles of possession and pressing that have taken them from the fourth tier.
"We have a very clear idea of how we want to play, how we want to be on and off the field," says Josef Welzmuller, their technical director. That clarity just brought Elversberg two wins from two in this debut season. They are Bundesliga sensations already.
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Bayer Leverkusen, champions of Germany just two years ago, were dispatched on the opening weekend. Now, five-time Bundesliga winners Borussia Monchengladbach have gone the same way - vanquished 4-3 in their own stadium. Curiouser and curiouser.
This victory was even more astonishing than the last. After blowing Leverkusen off the park in the first half last weekend, Elversberg did it differently this time around. They were 3-1 down after an hour and did not take the lead until the 94th minute. Gladbach stunned.
It was a privilege to be there to witness Elversberg's ambitious approach pay off. There was no thought of settling for the draw at Gladbach. Bundesliga mainstays humbled by the smallest club to ever play in the competition. None of this should be happening.
Welzmuller himself finds it all a little bemusing. If you had never heard of his team then he has sympathy as a native of Munich. "A four-hour drive away and most people there won't know about Elversberg." Picking it out on a map is not easy even for Germans.
It has been a remarkable rise. The regional leagues were the natural home of Elversberg until three promotions in five seasons took them into another orbit entirely. Their coach Vincent Wagner referred to it as their journey to Mars. Two games in and they have lift off.
Elversberg are on six points already and no team in the Bundesliga has scored more. They are two points ahead of champions Bayern Munich who they welcome next week to a stadium that needed redeveloping just to satisfy second-tier regulations in 2023.
Even now, a temporary permit is allowing Bundesliga football to be played there while further work is ongoing. All of which raises the obvious question. How exactly have they pulled it off? Putting that to Welzmuller, he insists there is no secret behind this miracle.
"I know that it sounds like magic or like a fairytale," he concedes. "But as far as I can tell, after four-and-a-half months, it is just like being very clear and being very hard working and having this very, very calm environment. A lot of hard-working people."
The reference to four-and-a-half months is an allusion to the fact that Welzmuller himself is new to this, arriving eight games before Elversberg's promotion. Ole Book, the man who masterminded much of the recruitment was poached by Borussia Dortmund in March.
Wagner was only appointed last year. His predecessor Horst Steffen was the man who had guided Elversberg out of regional football but he had a better offer from Werder Bremen, who then sacked him halfway through last season. Clearly, this is not about one man.
Wagner seemed to be making that point himself amid the jubilant scenes at Borussia-Park on Saturday. As supporters chanted his name, he pointed at his assistants who oversaw the comeback. He had been sent off at half-time. Nothing derails Elversberg.
"What I see is a structure that will hold, even if a head coach leaves, even if a sporting director or technical director leaves. In my opinion, the main factor is really how we make decisions. Very, very few people decide, so we are very fast in decision-making."
Book pulled off some particularly good deals. He loaned Nick Woltemade and Fisnik Asllani. Younes Ebnoutalib, since sold to Eintracht Frankfurt, was found at FC Giessen. But that combination of bargain buys and smart loans continues to fuel Elversberg.
Against Leverkusen, what turned out to be the winning goal was scored by David Mokwa, a young striker plucked from Hoffenheim's reserves in January. Cole Campbell, the club's record signing from Dortmund, marked the occasion with a debut goal too.
Against Gladbach, it was more of the same. Elversberg were the top scorers in their division last season, with the best disciplinary record, and their football just smells of optimism. Francis Onyeka almost scored early in the game through his pressing but hit the post.
Mokwa then ran through and did score. The lively Campbell was dispossessed for the third Gladbach goal but the substitute who replaced him, Maurice Krattenmacher, scored twice either side of Felix Keidel's glorious free-kick and Elversberg won it.
Krattenmacher's second was set up by fellow substitute Noel Futkeu. All six of the players mentioned above are aged 23 or under. Campbell and Krattenmacher are new signings. Onyeka and Futkeu are on loan from Frankfurt and Leverkusen, respectively.
Welzmuller admits being able to attract these talents is evidence that Elversberg are operating within a different world now. "Being able to buy players like Cole Campbell was far away from a club like Elversberg half a year ago," he explains.
"Being confronted by those types of situations where people recognise Elversberg and where players who were out of reach by far from us and now we are able to even acquire them, those kind of situations are where we start to realise we are in the Bundesliga."
But they are not just there, they are thriving. Perhaps the stripped-back nature of the club is the key to it. The Bundesliga is full of big clubs with attendances four times the size of the whole village of Elversberg. But many are weighed down by the expectations.
With so many stakeholders, these organisations can be like oil tankers to turn around. Agile Elversberg are different. "Compared to big clubs in Germany, where you have this kind of negative media impact and people pointing fingers, we do not have all that."
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It is food for thought. And maybe when there are fewer checks and balances, things can go wrong just as quickly as they have gone right. But for now, Elversberg are the story in German football. And keeping feet on the ground is becoming more and more difficult.
"We want to be very humble, respect the league and try our best to stay up," insists Welzmuller. But they are not playing like a team with such modest aims. Next up, it is Bayern Munich. Win that and Elversberg are going beyond Mars and into another galaxy.
