A newcomer under the umbrella of the German Football League. SV Elversberg is facing the first second division game in its history. The most important facts about the climber.
The or the?
It is SV Elversberg, because the club is called Sportvereinigung 07 Elversberg.
Where is Elversberg?
Together with the other district of Spiesen, Elversberg forms the municipality of Spiesen-Elversberg, which belongs to the district of Neunkirchen in Saarland. The two stadiums of SVE and 1. FC Saabrücken, the much better-known club from the state capital, are about 16 kilometers apart.
In which stadium does SV Elversberg play?
The stadium is officially called “Ursapharm Arena an der Kaiserlinde”. It holds around 10,000 spectators, of which more than 6,000 have standing room. Until 2014 the stadium was called “Waldstadion Kaiserlinde”, then the rights were sold to the sponsor. The company from the pharmaceuticals industry supports the club to this day, also as a jersey sponsor.
Since the stadium is currently still being renovated, SVE has to move to Ludwigspark in Saarbrücken for the first home game in its second division history against FC Hansa Rostock.
who gives the money
Frank Holzer is the managing director of Ursapharm. He was born in Neunkirchen and played football himself, including for 1. FC Saarbrücken and Eintracht Braunschweig. The 70-year-old Frank Holzer is the chairman of the supervisory board of the SVE, his son Dominik, also managing director of the pharmaceutical company, is the chairman of the club.
League membership of SV Elversberg since 2000 Time span League Comments 2000 to 2008 Regionalliga Süd then 3rd league 2008 to 2012 Regionalliga West after structural reform 4th league 2012/13 Regionalliga Südwest renewed reform, 4th league 2013/14 3rd league 2014 to 2022 Regional League Southwest 4th League 2022/23 3rd League 2023 to ? 2nd Bundesliga
Greatest successes
Promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga is the greatest success in the club’s history. Already at the beginning of the 2022/23 season there were indications of what the SVE would be capable of. The team knocked out Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen in the first round of the DFB Cup with a 4-3 win. In the second round, VfL Bochum won 1-0 at the Kaiserlinde.
Who is the trainer?
Horst Steffen has been coaching SV Elversberg since October 2018. No one else has been the head coach of a current second division team for as long as the 54-year-old football coach.
Steffen was born in Krefeld and played in the youth for the district club Bayer 05 Uerdingen, where he then began his professional career with the seniors. Other stations were Borussia Mönchengladbach and MSV Duisburg.
Before his time in Elversberg, Steffen worked as a head coach for the Stuttgarter Kickers, Preußen Münster and Chemnitzer FC.
Who are the most famous players of the team?
Portuguese Marcel Correia and Dane Wahid Faghir, who joined Saarland from VfB Stuttgart, are the only two players with Bundesliga experience. However, his 19 appearances for Eintracht Braunschweig at Correia date back to the 2013/14 season.
Manuel Feil (184 games), Kevin Koffi (177) and goalkeeper Frank Lehmann (169) are the players with the most appearances for SVE in the squad.
The top scorer last season, when Elversberg moved up from the regional league to the second division, was Luca Schnellbacher with 14 goals in 27 games.
Where does SV Elversberg start?
The SVE will start at Hannover 96 on Saturday (07/29/2023) from 1 p.m. They will then be the 128th second division team in history.
Excerpts of the game will be shown in the sports show from 6 p.m. The full game is available in the radio report.