Stuttgarter Kickers

Stuttgarter Kickers
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Full name	Sportverein Stuttgarter Kickers e.V.
Nickname(s)	Die Kickers, Die Blauen (The Blues),; Die Blauen-Götter (The Blue-Gods)
Founded	21 September 1899
Ground	Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau
Capacity	11,410
President	Rainer Lorz
Coach	Tomislav Stipić
League	3. Liga
2014–15	4th
Website	Club home page
	Current season

Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers.

History

In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Südkreis-Liga, Kreisliga Württemberg and then in the Bezirksliga Württemberg. With the reorganization of German football during the Third Reich in 1933, the team – now known as SV Stuttgarter Kickers – found itself in the Gauliga Württemberg, one of sixteen top tier regional leagues established in the country during that time. It continued to have good results locally, but was unable to impress beyond its own area. In the final year of World War II the Kickers fielded a combined wartime squad with Sportfreunde Stuttgart.

After the war the club resumed play in the Oberliga Süd and performed as a mid-table team early on. By 1950 it had slipped to the lower half of the table with a seemingly solid grip on 14th place, constantly struggling to avoid relegation throughout the decade. Kickers spent the early 60's in tier II football, but after the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional league, in 1963, the club was moved to the Regionalliga Süd. In 1974 that league went professional and became the 2.Bundesliga. Between 1963 and the late 1980s the team had varying results, but finally stabilized in the upper half of the standings toward the end of that period. It has one losing appearance to its credit in the German Cup in 1987 and in 1988–89 it made it to the Bundesliga for the first time. It ended a run of 28 years as a second division outfit. The team was immediately relegated after a 17th place finish, but continued to deliver some of its best performances. Die Blauen advanced to the semi-finals of the 2000 German Cup and then had a second turn in the Bundesliga in 1991–92, but with the same result as its earlier time up. Over the next decade the club played largely in the second division, before slipping to the Regionalliga Süd (III) in 2001, where they remained until 2008, when a tenth place finish narrowly qualified them for the new 3. Liga. They finished last (20th) in the 3. Liga in 2008–09 and were relegated to the Regionalliga Süd. After three seasons at Regionalliga level Kickers returned to the 3. Liga in 2012 where they now play, finishing eighth in 2013–14.

The Stuttgarter Kickers also have handball, athletics, table tennis, cheerleading, and Lacrosse departments. The association is also recognized for its training of football referees and other game officials. They had a hockey department too, which in 1957 became independent under the name of HTC Stuttgarter Kickers.

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Korbinian Müller
4	DF	Hendrik Starostzik
5	DF	Manuel Bihr
6	MF	Sandrino Braun
7	MF	Marco Calamita
8	MF	Gerrit Müller
9	FW	Elia Soriano
10	MF	Vincenzo Marchese
11	FW	Lhadji Badiane
12	MF	Andreas Ivan
13	DF	Klaus Gjasula
16	DF	Fabio Leutenecker
17	MF	Gratas Sirgėdas
18	MF	Marco Gaiser

No.	Position	Player
19	FW	Daniel Engelbrecht
20	FW	Bajram Nebihi
21	DF	Marc Stein
22	MF	José-Alex Ikeng
23	MF	Daniel Kaiser
24	MF	Edisson Jordanov
25	DF	Alessandro Abruscia
26	GK	Rouven Sattelmaier
27	DF	Fabian Baumgärtel
28	MF	Bentley Baxter Bahn
29	DF	Tobias Pachonik
33	MF	Markus Mendler
37	FW	Manuel Fischer
38	GK	Carl Klaus
40	FW	Erich Berko

Current staff

Tomislav Stipić	Head coach
Sreto Ristić	Personal assistant
Erol Sabanov	Goalkeeping coach
Marc Rösgen	Fitness coach
Michael Zeyer	Sport director
Christian Mauch	Team doctor
Lennart Sewigh	Team doctor
Gabriel Dabbagh	Physiotherapist

Reserve team

The Stuttgarter Kickers II, historically also known as Stuttgarter Kickers Amateure, have been playing in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg since 2000. Previously, the team fluctuated between the Landesliga and Verbandsliga Württemberg.

The reserve team squad:^[1]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Joso Kobas
2	DF	Robin Faber
3	DF	Emmanuel Apler
4	DF	Tim Roos
5	DF	Tony Günther
6	MF	Antonio Di Matteo
7	FW	Luca Lippert
8	MF	Volkan Celiktas
9	FW	Daniel Lang
10	DF	Davide Pumilia
11	MF	Athanasios Raptis
12	MF	Janis Lamatsch

No.	Position	Player
13	DF	Ivan Borna Jelic Balta
14	FW	Nico Schürmann
15	MF	Nico Blank
16	FW	Burhan Soyudogru
17	MF	Denis Gudzevic
18	MF	Umberto Tedesco
19	FW	Lasse Lehmann
20	FW	Marco Koch
21	DF	Aris Akgün
22	FW	Anastasios Ketsemeridis
23	DF	Marco Romano
30	GK	Mateusz Babieczko

Staff

Alfred Kaminiski (Head Coach)
Max Bruns (Assistant Coach)
Erol Sabanov (Goalkeeper Coach)
Ümit Sahin (Goalkeeper Coach)
Jan Mayer (Fitness Coach)

Honours

The club's honours:

League

German football championship
- Runners-up: 1908
Southern German championship
- Champions: 1908, 1913, 1917
Südkreis-Liga (I)
- Champions: (3) 1913, 1914, 1917
- Runners-up: (2) 1909, 1911
Kreisliga Württemberg (I)
- Champions: (2) 1921, 1923
- Runners-up: (2) 1920, 1922
Bezirksliga Württemberg-Baden (I)
- Champions: (2) 1924, 1925
Bezirksliga Württemberg (I)
- Champions: (2) 1928, 1933
- Runners-up: 1929
Gauliga Württemberg (I)
- Champions: (5) 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942
- Runners-up: (3) 1934, 1938, 1944
2nd Oberliga Süd (II)
- Champions: (2) 1951, 1959
2nd Bundesliga
- Champions: 1988
Regionalliga Süd
- Champions: 1996, 2012
- Runners-up: (2) 1995, 2011
Verbandsliga Württemberg
- Runners-up: (4) 1982^‡, 1983^‡, 1991^‡, 2000^‡

Cup

DFB-Pokal
- Runners-up: 1987
Württemberg Cup
- Winners: 2005, 2006
- Runners-up: 2003, 2014

Youth

The club's youth teams have enjoyed quite a bit of success on the national scene.

German Under 19 championship
- Champions: 1979
German Junior Cup
- Winners: 1990
^‡ Reserve team.

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:^[2]^[3]