The fairy tale of Heidenheim continues
Heidenheim's incredible journey to the top German league began in September 2007. Frank Schmidt, who was also born in Heidenheim, became the new head coach of the club. Back in those days, they were far away from playing professional football. If someone had told them about what would happen, nobody would have believed this for sure.
Last season, Heidenheim managed to play their first-ever season in the Bundesliga. A great success for the club, especially Frank Schmidt. But it got even better. After an incredible season and thanks to Jan-Niklas Beste and Tim Kleindienst they even qualified for the qualifiers of the Conference League. Unbelievable, because nearly everyone expected them to fight against relegation until the end.
Departures? No problem for Schmidt
This summer brought two terrible news to all Heidenheim fans out there. Beste as well as Kleindienst left the club and signed with two bigger clubs. Understandable, since both can make the next steps of their careers there. For Heidenheim it meant tough departures, but at the same time they fully trusted Schmidt to find solutions for this.
After so many years in the club, Schmidt also found a way to compensate for thisl. He changed the system and got some exciting new players like Leo Scienza and Paul Wanner. Both have had a fairly good start to the season, and the club as well. In the cup they managed to get an easy win, in the Bundesliga they also started with two strong performances and only lost against a much better performing Borussia Dortmund in comparison to last season.
Heidenheim qualified for the UEFA Conference League
The most exciting part of the season has happened in the qualifiers of the Conference League so far. After two extremely tight matches against BK Häcken from Sweden, Heidenheim qualified for their first group stage of an international cup. They will even play Chelsea at home, unbelievable.
Before this, they need to focus on the Bundesliga first. It’s more important to be in a good position and not to be mentioned in the relegation battle. Some of the surprising teams playing international matches in the past have had huge problems with this, like for example Cologne.
At the beginning of October, it’s their time to shine. Their first-ever match in an international cup will be when they play at home against NK Olimpija Ljubljana from Slovenia. It currently looks like they will even be the favorite in this matchup. So if you’re from Germany, trust Heidenheim, and would like to bet on them, there are some top comparisons of the available bookmakers to find a suitable one. End of November Heidenheim will get the biggest match of their club history and face Chelsea, but until then it’s still a long way to go and to prepare for this.