This is post four of a wider series. A series for FM24.
“There was David and Goliath. Then there’s the ant at David’s feet and an unfathomably large beast who could crush Goliath like one.”
In-game date: 1 July 2025
The following is an excerpt from a (fictional) article, written by a (fictional) journalist, from an (also fictional) sports website called theangrylinesmen, modelled on the style of The Athletic.
The final whistle blows at the Max-Morlock-Stadion and the players from both hosts FC Nürnberg and visitors Viktoria Köln collapse on the pitch breathlessly after a hard fought 2-2 draw. It’s fourteen degrees on a pleasant Sunday evening as the curtains come down on an exhausting 2024-2025 2.Bundesliga campaign.
Viktoria Köln are promoted to the Bundesliga! Back to back promotions to the top tier for the ultimate underdogs. The stuff of fairytales.
Incredibly, of the 31,507 fans in attendance today, a lowly 124 are there to support Viktoria Köln. One hundred and twenty four. Genuinely. They really are a tiny outfit, and had no right being promoted from 3.Liga like they did last season in Italian manager Enzo Scutari’s first season in charge, nevermind achieving what they have done this year in the division above.
There was David and Goliath. Then there’s the ant at David’s feet and an unfathomably large beast who could crush Goliath like one. That’s the gulf in scale we are speaking of here between Viktoria Köln and the top teams of German football.
To further that line of thought, Viktoria Köln are financially dwarfed by almost every other team in 2.Bundesliga. The lowest annual salary bill (see above), 150-1 for promotion with the bookmakers and they kicked off the season by taking a £16million loan to build a new stadium, making them temporarily homeless, renting as a stadium share with Bayer Leverkusen, and teetering on the edge of administration.
Enzo Scutari couldn’t spend any money last season in the third tier and added no players whatsoever but sold a handful. For his second season in charge he added five free agents and three free loan players from charitable competitors. Two years into the job and he still hasn’t been able to spend a single penny on transfer fees. That makes the reality of what happened this season so remarkable. Die Außenseiter, indeed.
The players approach the tiny pocket of away fans hidden in the corner of the stadium and it’s clear the gravity of Scutari and co’s achievement has really started to sink in. Patrick Koronkiewicz is visibly broken, tears flooding down the cheeks of the 34-year old full-back as he applauds the fans. Koronkiewicz today played in his 278th league match for the club. 11 years of service, starting back in 2014 when Viktoria Köln were in the Regionalliga West, the fourth tier of German club football. Next year I have no doubt he’ll take to the pitch as a Bundesliga player.
Next season is a seemingly insurmountable challenge waiting to happen as the minnows reach the Bundesliga. We’ll be on record as saying that for the third year in a row, yet Enzo Scutari keeps proving us wrong.
Ordinarily, in a season like this you can look at a critical game late in the season which was a definitive watershed moment leading to a glorious finale. In a strange twist of fate, Viktoria Köln didn’t have one this year, despite the absurd promotion as the end result. Match day 27 was set up as such, as they played Darmstadt in third place without captain Moritz Fritz governing the backline and without striking duo Serhat-Semih Güler or ‘La Tigre’ Lobinger, both injured with ankle problems. Despite opening the scoring, Darmstadt completely bossed the second half and flattened VK 3-1.
It proved not enough by the final whistle of matchday 34, as both Darmstadt and fallen giants Werder Bremen missed out on the third place playoff slot, which went to Heidenheim instead. Sadly, overcoming Eintracht Frankfurt in the playoff was a bridge too far, and they won’t join champions Hannover 96 and second place Viktoria Köln in the Bundesliga for 2025-2026.
Tactically, Enzo Scutari’s side sat a little deeper than most teams in a 4-4-2 shape when out of possession, but in attack is where they exploded into life. Like the two video clips above show, the focus was on incisive counter-attacking. One-touch passes, getting the most out of the width, and relying on midfielders for goals. Left winger Tomás Andrade finished the season as joint top-scorer on 14 goals with veteran striker Borja Bastón, while right winger Suheyel Najar was third on 11. Fourth was captain Moritz Fritz with eight goals, all from cleverly-worked near post corner deliveries.
The xG table had the club in 9th position (certainly not 2nd) based on the balance of their play, outscoring the quality of their chances by some 19 goals and conceding five fewer than they should have. Though they did excel defensively, convert more efficiently than any other side and very heavily leveraged set piece trickery. That said, Viktoria Köln conversely completed the absolute fewest dribbles of any team of the 18 in the division, and were 12th for possession of the ball, with an average of just 47%.
Pure luck this year, or some kind of witchcraft?
Viktoria Köln are firmly in nosebleed territory. They have now moved into their new 15,000 capacity (12,750 seated) stadium and have reached the promised land of the Bundesliga while reducing club debts to under the £7million mark while raising the valuation of the club to £106million, up some 2,500%+ from the £4million the club was worth just 700 days ago when Scutari took the hotseat. The Italian has also signed a new two year deal to extend his stay.
That said; youth recruitment is a basic setup, academy facilities are barely adequate and if reports are to be believed, there will still be absolutely no money in the budget for additional players. Which is a serious problem, especially when goalkeeper Kevin Rauhut has retired and last year’s number one Lasse Rieß has returned to parent club Mainz.
That leaves Viktoria Köln with no senior goalkeepers and in fact just 16 senior players in total on the books. A few of which have already signalled their intention to leave as they were not deemed of high enough quality to play regularly in the second tier, namely Serhat-Semih Güler, Lars Dietz and possibly Álex Alegría, who failed to impress after his free transfer from Badajoz in his native Spain last summer with just 3 goals in 20 league appearances. What chance will they have at the top level? Let that reality sink in.
If those three exit as expected, there will be 13 senior players at the club, no goalkeepers and no money to bring in replacements. It’s no wonder the bookmakers are immediately writing off any chance of a third miracle in a row for the club’s Italian hero.
So what’s next? Optimists would say that the club will be absolutely destroyed this season, be relegated but aim to build on a firm financial footing from there. Will that be enough for Enzo Scutari? Or will he pull another rabbit out of the hat and totally obliterate expectations? Or will he leave and pursue fresh challenges after dragging the club from the edge of obscurity to the brink of extinction to the precipice of glory? I guess we are going to find out.
Alex Mellan for theangrylinesmen
We’re fucked.
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag