HANNOVER 96

'Hannover 96' is a German football club in Hannover, Lower Saxony.

Contents

History

Foundation to WWII

Post-War era

Reunification to present

2007-08 Season

Honours

Stadium

Team Trivia

Current Squad

Players out on loan

Transfers

Manager History

External links

History

Foundation to WWII

The club was founded on April 12, 1896 as ''Hannoverscher FC 1896''. Their initial enthusiasm was for athletics and rugby: football did not become their primary interest until 1899. In 1913, they merged with ''Ballverein Hannovera von 1898'' to become ''Hannoverscher Sportverein (HSV) von 1896''.
''Hannoverscher FC's'' colours were black-white-green, but they played in blue, while ''BV'' played in red. The newly united team kept black-white-green as the club colours, but they chose to take to the field in red, giving the team the nickname ''Die Roten'' (en: The Reds}. The team's third jersey is in the club's official colours.
Under the Third Reich German football was re-organized into sixteen top-flight leagues. The club played in the Gauliga Niedersachsen as ''SV Hannover 96'' beginning in 1933. They made their first appearance in the country's final rounds in 1935 and sent representatives to the national side the next year. They won their first national championship in 1938 in what was one of the biggest upsets in German football history when they beat ''Schalke 04'', the game's most dominant side of the era. The two sides played to a 3:3 draw before ''Hannover'' prevailed 4:3 in a tension filled re-match. In 1942, the team moved to the newly formed Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig.

Post-War era

Like most other German organizations, the club was dissolved after World War II by the occupying Allied authorities. It was reconstituted in August, 1945 and the next month a mixed side made up of players from ''Hannover 96'' and ''Arminia Hannover'' played their first post-war match against a British military team.
The club resumed league play in 1947 in the first division Oberliga Nord, was relegated, but quickly returned to the top-flight in 1949. ''Hannover 96's next appearance in a national final would not come until 1954 when they soundly defeated ''1. FC Kaiserslautern'' 5:1. The beaten side included five of the same players who would go on later that year to win Germany's first World Cup in a surprise victory known as the Miracle of Bern.
The club's next honours were German amateur championships in 1960 and 1964. In 1963, the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, began play with sixteen of the nation's top teams. ''Hannover'' played in the Regionalliga Nord (II) that season, but earned promotion to the senior circuit in the following year. They played at the upper level for a decade, regularly finishing in the lower half of the table, until finally relegated to 2.Bundesliga Nord for the 1974-75 season. They bounced right back, but were again sent down, this time to spend seventeen of the next twenty years in the second tier.

Reunification to present

The club suffered from money problems in the late 70's and again in the early 90's. Then, in 1992, ''Hannover'' put together an impressive run that would lead them to the capture of their first German Cup (DFB-Pokal) and help to set their finances right. That run included victories over Bundesliga sides ''Borussia Dortmund'', ''VfL Bochum'', ''Karlsruher SC'', ''Werder Bremen'', and ''Borussia Moenchengladbach'', as they became the first lower division side to win the competition. The team's low point came with demotion to Regionalliga Nord (III) for two years in 1996-98: the fact that the fall from the second league came during their anniversary year unfortunately made them a laughing stock among fans of rival teams for years to come. ''Hannover'' returned to tier II play in 1999, and to the Bundesliga in 2002 on the strength of a record setting 75 point season.
Since their promotion the club have consolidated in the top flight, achieving a string of mid table finishes under the command of several managers. Current coach Dieter Hecking was brought in just weeks into the 2006/07 season after a disastrous start under Peter Neururer, in which the club lost the first 3 matches by a combined 11 goals. The club stabilised after this and came close to a European spot.

2007-08 Season

After just falling short of UEFA Cup entry in the previous campaign, the club have sought to boost their firepower, signing Mike Hanke from VfL Wolfsburg and Benjamin Lauth from Hamburg SV. They have already had an impressive start with pre-season wins over Rangers and Real Madrid, and a safe passage through to the 2nd round of the DFB Cup.

Honours

German Cup play has long been dominated by first division teams: ''Hannover's 1992 German Cup win made them the only non-Bundesliga side to take that prize since the formation of the professional league in 1963. Schwarz-Weiss Essen had become the first second division club to win the cup over thirty years earlier in 1959.

★ German champions: 1938, 1954

★ German Cup winners: 1992

★ German amateur champions: 1960, 1964, 1965

Stadium

''Hannover 96'' plays in the AWD-Arena, built in 1954 as the Niedersachsenstadion, which has a capacity of 49,951 spectators. During the 2006 World Cup the stadium was the site of four first round matches and one Round of 16 match.

Team Trivia

★ ''Hannover's advance into the Bundesliga in 1964 was well received as the club set a league attendance record in their first year, averaging 46,000 spectators a game.

Current Squad

Players in 'bold' have international caps.
(captain)

Players out on loan

Transfers

'In:'
'Out:'

Manager History

★ Robert Fuchs (1932-1946) ★ Fritz Pölsterl (1946-1947) ★ Otto Höxtermann (1947-1948) ★ Robert Fuchs (1948-1950) ★ Paul Slopianka-Hoppe (1950-1951) ★ Emil Izsó (1951-1952) ★ Helmut Kronsbein (1952-1957) ★ Kuno Klötzer (1957-1958) ★ Fritz Silken (1958-1959) ★ Günter Grothkopp (1959-1962) ★ Heinz Lucas (1962-1963) ★ Helmut Kronsbein (Jul 1963-Apr 1966) ★ Hannes Kirk (Apr-Jun 1966) ★ Horst Buhtz (Jul 1966-Feb 1968) ★ Karl-Hein Mühlhausen (Feb-Jun 1968; caretaker) ★ Zlatko Čajkovski (Jul 1968-Dec 1969) ★ Hans Pilz (Jan-Jun 1970)

★ Helmut Johannsen (Jul 1970-Nov 1971) ★ Hans Hipp (Nov 1971-Feb 1973) ★ Hannes Baldauf (Mar 1973-Mar 1974) ★ Helmut Kronsbein (Mar 1974-Jan 1976) ★ Hannes Baldauf (Jan-Dec 1976) ★ Helmut Kronsbein (Dec 1976-Jun 1978) ★ Toni Burghardt (Jul 1978-Jun 1979) ★ Diethelm Ferner (Jul 1979-Nov 1982) ★ Gerd Bohnsack (Nov 1982-Oct 1983) ★ Werner Biskup (Oct 1983-Nov 1985) ★ Jürgen Rynio (Nov 1985-Jan 1986) ★ Jörg Berger (Jan-Mar 1986) ★ Helmut Kalthoff (Mar-May 1986) ★ Jürgen Wähling (Jun 1986-Sep 1988) ★ Hans Siemensmeyer (Sep 1988-Mar 1989) ★ Reinhard Saftig (Mar 1989-Jun 1989) ★ Slobodan Cendic (Jul 1989-Aug 1989)

★ Michael Krüger (Sep 1989-Sep 1990) ★ Michael Lorkowski (Oct 1990-Jun 1992) ★ Eberhard Vogel (Jul 1992-Nov 1993) ★ Rolf Schafstall (Nov 1993-Nov 1994) ★ Peter Neururer (Nov 1994-May 1995) ★ Egon Coordes (Jul 1995-Mar 1996) ★ Jürgen Stoffregen (Mar-Jun 1996) ★ Reinhold Fanz (Jul 1996-Dec 1998) ★ Franz Gerber (Dec 1998-Jul 1999) ★ Branko Ivanković (Jul 1999-Feb 2000) ★ Horst Ehrmantraut (Feb 2000-Apr 2001) ★ Ralf Rangnick (May 2001-Mar 2004) ★ Ewald Lienen (Mar 2004-Nov 2005) ★ Peter Neururer (Nov 2005-Aug 2006) ★ Dieter Hecking (Sep 2006- )

External links

★ Official team site

★ Official team site (in English)

★ Fan magazine

★ Abseits Guide to German Soccer

★ Hannover statistics

★ AWD Arena

★ Fan Club Portal (in German)