Some soccer clubs’ nicknames are bizarre while others are just outright cool. Whether it’s the ‘Old Lady’ or the ‘Yellow Submarine’, or even, presumably given to them by their own fans, the “Sons of the Gods”.
Put Nürnberg among the very best with their entry: Der Club. It’s simple, powerful, and straight to the point.
I came to this corner of Germany to find out if 1. FC Nürnberg, a famous old club with a proud fanbase, is really befitting such a prodigious title.
Familiarizing ourselves
Wandering through the Aldstadt area of Nürnberg (Nuremberg, as we English speakers might call it) city center, your mind gets swept up in the idyllic stereotypes of a fairytale Bavaria.
I didn’t come to Nürnberg for a Disney experience, however. The reason for my trip was soccer; this part of north Bavaria lives and breathes the game.
As I craned my neck at the city’s gothic architecture yet remained mindful of my footing on the cobbled streets, it was impossible to avoid the smell of the bakeries that were all around me.
1. FC Nürnberg is a sleeping giant, currently dwelling near the bottom of 2.Bundesliga. They’ve spent eight of the last nine seasons in Germany’s second tier.
Ask any Nürnberger and they’d tell you they belong among Germany’s elite. 1. FC Nürnberg earned the easily-translated nickname “Der Club” thanks to an unbeaten spell spanning 5 years in the early 20th century, a moniker the fans treasure to this day and an achievement that can never be taken away from FCN.
People think that Bayern Munich has been dominant forever in German soccer. In living memory, this is the case, but it took Bayern until 1987 to overtake Nürnberg as the club with the most top-division titles in Germany (only one of FCN’s titles was in the Bundesliga era).
Surprising friendship
In a pub before the game, I noticed a fan wearing a typical half-and-half scarf donning both Nürnberg’s name and that of North Rhine-Westphalia outfit Schalke 04. Initially, I assumed that this fan had purchased the scarf when the two clubs had previously met, but I began to see more and more merchandise adorning both clubs. Was I missing something?
It turns out that the two clubs, despite being 231 miles apart, share an unusual affinity. The origins of the friendship aren’t verified but you’ll regularly see fans of either team attending games the others are playing in and you’ll periodically see the crest of both clubs among the swathes of fans.
The respective marketing teams even shared a photo shoot revealing the clubs’ new away jerseys to fans.
These sorts of ties aren’t common in the tribal world of the modern game but it’s one I was fascinated with. It appears that if you like Nürnberg or Schalke, or at the very least dislike Nürnberg’s local rivals Greuther Fürth, you’re more than welcome at the Max-Morlock-Stadion.
The excitement builds
Gameday clearly means beer day in Nürnberg (actually, maybe that’s every day). The vast majority of fans on the platform at Nürnberg central station were archetypal Bavarian soccer fans; holding a beer in one hand and using the other to gesture in tune with their chants.
Beer is such an important facet of everyday life in Bavaria, that much became abundantly clear to me after my visit to Nürnberg.
While there are a plethora of pubs in the city center, we struggled to spot any near the ground. Instead, it appeared that a lot of home fans opt to buy canned beer from pop-up stalls perched on the side of the road. An early afternoon street party, of sorts, meeting your friends and soaking up the pre-game buzz – what’s not to love?
For a club in desperation mode, scrapping for whatever points they can get near the foot of the second division, having over 28,500 fans attend this game, as I later found out, demonstrates the stature and size of the fanbase this club has.
Shimmying through the turnstiles, I was handed a pamphlet titled “Ultras” that, were it not for my poor understanding of German, I’d have enjoyed reading.
Seeing what food is on offer at soccer stadiums is a must, so when I saw pretzels that were bigger than my head, my hand was reaching for my wallet. There’s only one way of improving a German favorite: add a generous helping of cheese. I was sold. Wunderbar.
The stadium is certainly befitting of the Bundesliga, never mind the second division. A 50,000-seat arena with a distinctly European running track around the outside of the pitch, this stadium is a throwback to when space wasn’t necessarily at a premium for architects, meaning compactness wasn’t always the way to go.
Located at the opposite end of the stadium to us, the FCN ultras put on a remarkable tifo, pyrotechnics, and vocal display. They were playing Holstein Kiel, a mid-table side from near the Danish border (you couldn’t get much further away in Germany), so I have no reason to believe this doesn’t happen every home game.
Although, it was new manager Markus Weinzierl’s first game in charge of the club so perhaps this was the mother of all welcomes. Tasked with changing the fortunes of a big club hovering above the relegation zone is a daunting assignment for anybody, but professionals relish this sort of challenge.
Hunting three points
The 440+ mile journey from Kiel only proved to appeal to a handful of fans of the visiting team; the commitment of the ardent few should be applauded.
The game started off in a robust fashion with more physical challenges allowed than you’d see in the top division, where players tend to receive greater protection and scrutiny.
Nürnberg ran the visitors ragged early on, peppering the Holstein Kiel goal to no avail. That was until a few minutes before halftime when the pressure paid off and the home side took a deserved lead into the break. A fully deserved lead had everyone around us happy.
Could FCN build on its positive performance and put this game out of sight? Quite the opposite. Within 10 minutes of the kickoff, Holstein Kiel overturned the deficit to take the lead and silence the home crowd.
A stunning, quickfire double turned the game on its head out of nowhere and finally gave the small traveling faithful something to sing about. The noise from the away section was fairly inaudible; what wasn’t was the groans from the home contingent.
Despite the best efforts of the Nürnberg players, the game was all but over with 10 minutes to play when the away side bagged their third, giving the hosts a lesson in efficiency in front of goal.
A consolation in injury time for Nürnberg offered little solace to the home fans who must’ve feared the worst for their season after being unable to win this sort of game with a new manager at the helm, where sides would typically benefit from a new manager “bounce”.
Der Club really let this one slip away from them in a game where they dominated proceedings for at least an entire half of soccer.
The sun sets on this Bavarian journey
We needn’t have hurried back through the leafy passageways back to the tram station through scores of disgruntled home fans, many of whom had left before us because they didn’t want to bear witness to any more distress than they needed to, yet we did.
Getting your local transport tickets included within your match ticket is a distinctly German token of goodwill. I don’t believe that there’s any coincidence that clubs in Germany, most of whom are majority-owned by the fans, provide value to match-goers more than clubs in other countries.
Nürnberg is no different. Included transportation, on an albeit crammed train, back into the city center is almost the tonic the suffering supporters needed.
This beautiful city, steeped in all its fascinating history, has a club to be proud of. Der Club has had its ups and downs – eight times they’ve gone from the second tier to the top flight, which was a German record at the time.
That doesn’t matter to these fans; the passion they have for their beloved side is as strong as anybody’s, that much was evident to me.
The Max-Morlock-Stadion is a theatre in every sense, one that deserves high-quality soccer. The good times might not be imminent for Nürnberg but the fans can, and will, continue to dream.