Fireworks flickered in the sky over Kiel, snatches of “Major Tom” came from the dressing room and most of the fans had long since set off for the long night towards the harbor when Uwe Stöver walked alone across the surprisingly well-preserved lawn of the Holstein Stadium. He treated himself to another cigarette. Lost in thought, the architect of Kiel’s success walked away from the ancient main stand, step by step, when a young man with a fan scarf around his forehead trotted up, caught up with him and hugged him – a few moments longer than is usual among guys.
It was Fiete Arp.
Stöver brought the 24-year-old striker to the fjord three years ago at the lowest point in his career; Not the only surprising move by the 57-year-old sports director: The entire promotion team of the Kiel sports association “Holstein” is riddled with characters with dents in their sporting biography.
Stöver, the now outgoing master builder, and coach Marcel Rapp, 45 years old, have always attached great importance to the topic of “development” during their three years in charge and have worked on the squad and each individual professional. They reaped their temporary reward for this on this warm, exciting night in Kiel, which was also so enchanting because – despite the beer shower and T-shirts – not everything was planned, but there was room for spontaneity.
The 1:1 saved “over the line”.
By the way, Uwe Stöver, who has been training his successor Carsten Wehlmann desk to desk in the shared office since March, was a quiet enjoyer: the success felt “surreal,” was all he said in the improvised interview zone of the Kiel container village. Then he was silent.
Others explained the success. Once again the Holstein team had to “suffer”, as it is often said in football. Fortuna Düsseldorf was an extremely strong, tough opponent in front of 15,000 people on Saturday evening, fighting for the last chance to gain direct promotion. Kiel survived the six minutes of stoppage time with the last of their strength and saved the 1-1 “over the line”, as Lewis Holtby said, which no one who wants to tell the story of the first Bundesliga club from Schleswig-Holstein can ignore because of the reaction Many people responded to his commitment three years ago: What do you want with him?
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The 33-year-old midfielder also remembered this when he drew the psychological diagram of a group without stars, of which he is clearly the boss: “It fills me with pride and satisfaction to be part of this team. We have good guys, good characters who leave everything on the pitch. It was just meant to be that we get promoted and I can celebrate the greatest success of my career with such a team.”
In the summer of 2023, there was little to suggest a season as the best away team in the league and a stable home team. In the desire to make the squad more “German”, younger and smaller, Stöver and Rapp let 16 players go and brought in eleven new ones, including boys from their own second team in the Regionalliga Nord.
Rapp revealed shortly before midnight, after his players had hijacked the press conference, that he already felt in the training camp that something special was happening. “We had a good feeling when we put it together and knew that we had a team that could would be able to play. There was a strong will to perform and the willingness to get better. We were able to keep up with everyone throughout the first half of the season and little by little this indescribable solidarity developed.”
As a Hoffenheim youth coach, Rapp himself has long earned his living as a football teacher in the best sense of the word. Since October 2021 in Kiel, he has continued on this path and developed young men like Tom Rothe, Colin Kleine-Bekel and Finn Porath into pillars of the team.
The Holstein class of 2024 is not a cheap version. Thanks to the millions of two entrepreneurial families who earn their money from supermarkets across the country, Holstein has been well-funded financially for many years – and was also in the bad years of the fourth division, when well-known coaches and players who had little use for the KSV, a lot of money was burned.
It took someone like handball player Wolfgang Schwenke in the handball city of Kiel to get Holstein on track. “When I came in 2009, I was supposed to take care of professionalization,” said the finance director with a fondness for cigarillos, and was almost bursting with pride: “I would say it worked.”
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Thanks to his work, this promotion is not a miracle, but the result of work: in seven second division years, the KSV achieved relegation twice, became an established member of the lower house, before a series of six clean sheets from the 25th to 20th On the 30th matchday the goal of the dreams was achieved.
With the fully functional and worth seeing training center in Projensdorf, Holstein has a home that is ready for the first league. The stadium on the Westring, which opened in 1911, breathes the history of the German champions from 1912, but has to be renovated for the premiere season in the upper house and then gradually rebuilt. The city’s financiers and state politicians will make sure of this, that’s a promise.
Hello beer shower: The entire promotion team of the Kiel sports association “Holstein” is riddled with characters with dents in their sporting biography.Witters
“No other city/no other love/no other club – only Holstein,” says the anthem of “Die Denkedrans,” which was played again and again on Friday evening. A beautiful fan song with a unifying message that is at the top of the pros’ playlist. And it will also stand, as Lewis Holtby promised: “We will stay as we are, even in the Bundesliga.”
He also handed over the plan for the appearance against FC Bayern: “We have been their feared opponents since the snowstorm game three years ago. When Thomas Müller comes in here, he gets flashbacks – and I cover Harry Kane.” The punchlines have always been with Holtby. Thanks to Holstein, he has become much more than just a joker.