F.C. Hansa Rostock

Football club infobox
clubname = F.C. Hansa Rostock


fullname = F.C. Hansa Rostock e.V.
nickname = Hansa, Hanseaten, Kogge,
Hansa-Kogge, Ostseestädter
founded = December 28, 1965
ground = DKB-Arena, Rostock
capacity = 29,000
chairman = flagicon|Germany Dirk Grabow
manager = flagicon|Germany Frank Pagelsdorf
league = 2. Bundesliga
season = 2007/08
position = Bundesliga, 17th (Relegated)
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pattern_la3=|pattern_b3=|pattern_ra3=| leftarm3=FFFF00|body3=FFFF00|rightarm3=FFFF00|shorts3=0000FF|socks3=FFFF00

F.C. Hansa Rostock is a German football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the former East Germany and made several appearances in the 1. Bundesliga.

History

The club was established on 1 November 1954 as the polysportive "Sportclub Empor Rostock". The football squad, however, couldn't be recruited from local "Betriebssportgemeinschaften" like the squad of the handball section, so a transfer of "BSG Empor Lauter"'s squad from Lauter to Rostock was considered. The area around Lauter, near the Czech border, was well-represented in East German football by competitive sides including "Wismut Aue", "Fortschritt Meerane" and "Motor Zwickau", so politician Karl Mewis ordered the re-assignment of the footballers of "Empor Lauter", over the futile protests of the team's local supporters, to Rostock. This was not an uncommon occurrence in East German football, as clubs were regularly re-named, re-structured, dismantled, or shuffled from city to city at the direction of well-placed communist officials.

The wholesale transfer of the "Lauterers" to Rostock part way through the 1954-55 season led to the disappearance of that association from play. A new club was formed in 1956 as "BSG Motor Lauter" and on 1 August 1990 it took up the tradition of the original side to play as "Lauterer Sportverein Viktoria 1913".

Play in Rostock

Newly formed "SC Empor Rostock" took the place of the former Lauter-based club in first division play in November 1954. They finished second the next season, but in 1956 plunged to 14th place and were relegated. They quickly bounced back, rejoining the DDR-Oberliga in 1958, before going on to become a very competitive side with a series of three vice-championships to their credit from 1962-1964, as well as several appearances in the final of the FDGB Pokal. The re-organization of East German sports in 1965 led to the association's football department becoming independent as "Fußball Club Hansa Rostock", which was designated as one of the country's 11 football clubs, "focus clubs" intended to groom talent for the development of a strong East German national side. The new club's name acknowledged Rostock's history as one of the major trading centres of northern Europe's Hanseatic League.

By the 70s the club was consistently finishing in the lower half of the league table and was relegated to the second division DDR-Liga for a single season on three different occasions late in the decade. They returned to form in the 80s and as the football leagues of the two Germanys were merged in 1991 after the re-unification of the country, "Rostock" won its first national championship in the last ever season of East German football, played out in the transitional NOFV Oberliga Nordost. They would also capture the last ever East German Cup with a 1:0 win over "FC Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt".

United Germany and the Bundesliga

The club's timely success earned them a place in the Bundesliga alongside "Dynamo Dresden" when the league was briefly expanded from 18 to 20 teams for the 1991-92 season to accommodate two former East German teams. "Hansa" was unable to stay up and was relegated after falling just a single point shy of the club ahead of them. Three seasons of tempering in the 2. Bundesliga would return the club to the top flight for the 1995-96 season. In ten years spent in the Bundesliga the team's best results were a pair of sixth place finishes. In spite of frequent placings in the bottom half of the league table, they would persist as the only former East German side able to consistently challenge the well-heeled clubs of the west.

"Rostock" had a very poor first half in the 2004-05 season, earning only a single win and five draws in 17 matches. They were unable to recover and at season's end were relegated, leaving the former DDR without a club in the top flight for the first time since re-unification. Like other East German teams they were the victims of a harsh economic reality as the wealthier, well-established western sides bought up the most talented eastern footballers as their clubs struggled to survive financially: "Rostock"'s Stefan Beinlich, Oliver Neuville and Victor Agali were just three players sent west for cash. After two years in the 2. Bundesliga the club returned to the top flight for the 2007-08 season, but was soon relegated back to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2008-2009 season.

Recent seasons

Honours

*East German champions: 1991
*East German vice-champions: 1955, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968
*East German Cup: 1991
*East German Cup finalists: 1955, 1957, 1960, 1967, 1987
*2. Bundesliga champions: 1995
*German Indoor champions: 1998

Fans

*In a study, "F.C. Hansa Rostock" placed fourth in Germany – behind "Bayern Munich", "Borussia Dortmund", and "Schalke 04" – in terms of the number fans the club has. They currently claim about 3.8 million supporters as the most successful football team in eastern Germany.Fact|date=February 2007

Stadium

The original Ostseestadion was built in 1954, with the participation of several hundred citizens of Rostock who helped for free. The first international match in the Ostseestadion of East Germany was on September 26, 1956. In 2001, the stadium was refurbished and modified to accommodate 30,000 spectators. On July 2, 2007 the naming rights were sold to Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB), hence the new official name is "DKB-Arena".

Trivia

*"Hansa Rostock"'s official anthem is "FC Hansa, wir lieben Dich total" (Hansa FC, We Totally Love You), recorded in 1995 by the East German band the Puhdys.

*On December 1, 2002 "Rostock" became the first club to field six foreigners from the same country in a Bundesliga match (Prica, Lantz, Wibran, Jakobsson, Arvidsson and Persson – all Swedes).

*In 2005, the club successfully sued three streakers who disrupted their 2003 match against "Hertha Berlin", to recoup the €20,000 they were fined by the DFB for failing to maintain adequate security at their ground.

Current squad

"For recent transfers, see List of German football transfers summer 2008."

Famous former players

"Hansa Rostock" sent 21 players to the East German (DDR) national side, as well as a handful to the national team of a united Germany.

A number of "Rostock"'s best players have been sold to other clubs as they struggle to adjust to rough and tumble capitalist western football.

* Steffen Baumgart

* Stefan Beinlich, 5-0 for Germany

* Arthur Bialas

* Olaf Bodden

* Thomas Doll, 28-7 for the GDR , 18-7 for Germany

* Carsten Jancker, 33-10 for Germany

* Gerd Kische, 63 caps for the GDR

* Toni Kroos, played in Hansa's youth system

* Axel Kruse

* Timo Lange

* Martin Max, 1 cap for Germany

* Ronald Maul, 2 caps for Germany

* Oliver Neuville, 65-9 for Germany

* Oswald Pfau

* Marko Rehmer, 35-4 for Germany

* Mathias Schober

* Juri Schlünz

* Dieter Schneider

* René Schneider, 1 cap for Germany

* Joachim Streich, a record 98-53 for the GDR

* Andreas Zachuber

* Kurt Zapf
* Gerd Wimmer, 5-0 for Austria

* Sergej Barbarez, 50-17 for Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia-Herzegovina

* Igor Pamić, 5-1 for Croatia

* Thomas Rasmussen, 2 caps for Denmark

* Yasser Radwan

* Mohamed Emara

* Jari Litmanen, considered the best Finnish football player ever, 108-28 for Finland

* Razundara Tjikuzu

* Peter Bosz, 8 caps for the Netherlands

* Victor Agali, played 12 caps and scored 4 goals for Nigeria

* Jonathan Akpoborie, played 14 caps for Nigeria

* Slawomir Chalaskiewicz, 2-0 for Poland

* Slawomir Majak

* Marcus Allbäck, 66-29 for Sweden

* Magnus Arvidsson, 2 caps for Sweden

* Andreas Jakobsson, 37 caps for Sweden

* Marcus Lantz, 5 caps for Sweden

* Joakim Persson, 3 caps for Sweden

* Rade Prica, 12-2 caps for Sweden

* Peter Wibrån, 10-0 for Sweden

* Bachirou Salou

* Paul Caligiuri, 110 caps for the USA

External links

* [http://www.fc-hansa.de official website of F.C. Hansa Rostock]
* [http://www.hansanews.de HANSANEWS.DE | THE ONLINE MAGAZINE]
* [http://www.hansafans.de hansa::fans.de - For Fans By Fans]
* [http://www.abseits-soccer.com/clubs/hansa.html The Abseits Guide to German Soccer]