Arabic version: إلفرسبرغ يطارد البقاء في البوندسليغا بعد فوز تاريخي في الظهور الأول

According to BBC News, Elversberg’s first Bundesliga match ended with a 3-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. The club, from a south-west German town near the French border with a population of 13,000 and no railway station, became the smallest town to reach Germany’s top division last season.

Coach Vincent Wagner has compared the task of avoiding relegation to a “journey to Mars”, but the club has risen rapidly through the leagues. Elversberg have secured three promotions in five years, moving from the fourth tier to the Bundesliga without the financial resources associated with some other fast-rising clubs.

Technical director Josef Welzmuller said the progress had been built gradually. “It might sound like the rise has been a rush but at every stage the floor was solid before the next one was built,” he said. The club intends to retain a recruitment approach centred on young talent, with Welzmuller describing its principles as being brave, intense and clever.

Former sporting director Ole Book helped establish that approach after joining as a scout in 2017. He brought in Nick Woltemade on loan from Werder Bremen II in 2022, when the forward scored 10 goals for Elversberg. Woltemade later joined Stuttgart before completing a £69m club-record move to Newcastle last year. Book left for Borussia Dortmund in April.

Elversberg’s stadium is being developed to hold 15,000 people, 2,000 more than the town’s population. Wagner said the side had strengthened where possible during a long pre-season and retained most of the players it wanted. “The team is ready for the Bundesliga,” he said.