TSG Hoffenheim Haberleri

Many football fans had already earmarked FC Schalke 04 for relegation by the end of the first half-season. They were thrashed 6-1 by Leipzig on Matchday 17, by which point S04 had only nine points on the board. But coach Thomas Reis has now guided his charges into safer waters: the Royal Blues are unbeaten in eight matches and have narrowed the gap to the non-relegation places.

The substitutes against FC Schalke 04: Philipp, Bičakčić, Ozan Kabak, Stiller, Rudy, Dolberg, Nsoki, Bischof, Tohumcu

Oliver Baumann has made 289 Bundesliga appearances in a TSG Hoffenheim shirt. That also makes the TSG captain Hoffenheim’s record player ahead of Sebastian Rudy (288). Manuel Neuer (478) and Thomas Müller (434) are the only current Bundesliga players to have made more appearances.

For almost 24 years, Christiane Rienesl pulled all the strings. When she started out as an administrative assistant at TSG Hoffenheim headquarters on 1 October 1999, the club was still playing in the Verbandsliga Nordbaden and competing against the likes of SG Dielheim, SV Sinsheim and FC Bammental. Hardly anyone at the club has accompanied TSG Hoffenheim’s rise as closely and in as senior a role as Christiane Rienesl, who has been the club’s security representative since 2005 and also managed the office of managing director Frank Briel for over a decade. But official titles and positions do not sufficiently describe her impact.

A Bundesliga match against FC Schalke 04 over the Easter weekend – that sounds familiar? TSG supporters will remember that four years ago, TSG Hoffenheim came out on top in an all-Blue & White clash on Easter itself. On Easter Sunday 2019, the Kraichgau club ran out 5-2 winners away to FC Schalke 04 thanks to goals from Ishak Belfodil (2), Andrej Kramarić, Adam Szalai and Nadiem Amiri, and recorded their first Bundesliga victory at Schalke in eight years.

How did you feel after the victory in Bremen?

Additional buses will run to the PreZero Arena on Sunday. A shuttle service will take visitors from Sinsheim/Elsenz railway station to the stadium and back again. There will also be a shuttle service on various routes. The buses will be available at the bus terminal (P9) for the return journey. More information on departure times and bus stops can be found here (SWEG) and here (Palatina Bus).

“Making the step-up to the Bundesliga was always a big goal of mine. It took 15 years and a few detours to realise it,” says Dominik Hechler, adding: “In my previous positions in the sports editorial department of the Frankfurter Rundschau, as a trainee at VfL Bochum and in the past ten years at ran, I was able to gain important experience that will serve me well in this new challenge. I am hugely looking forward to an exciting job at a young and innovative club that also runs many incredible projects and initiatives away from the football pitch.”

Did you know that… …Schalke are welcome guests in the Kraichgau? TSG Hoffenheim have played a...