The remarkable rise of Heidenheim

It was just a week ago that Heidenheim an der Brenz enjoyed the biggest night in its sporting history. Chelsea were the visitors to the small town located about halfway between Stuttgart and Augsburg. Although Heidenheim lost 2-0, it was the latest highlight in a fairy-tale rise in the club’s story from the lower leagues to the European stage. And many have asked how it was even possible. Heidenheim have no financial backer, but they do have Holder Sanwald and Frank Schmidt.

Frank Schmidt: The Volker Finke of Heidenheim

Schmidt was born in Heidenheim and has been the coach at his hometown club since 2007. He was previously a defender, including for Vestenbergsgreuth, with whom he inflicted one of the most notorious defeats in Bayern’s history, with Schmidt successfully shadowing Jean-Pierre Papin on that night on 14 September 1994. He eventually returned home and played for Heidenheim in front of crowds of 150 in the fifth-tier Verbandsliga. Schmidt was then made head coach in 2007 and said his goal was to become the Volker Finke of Heidenheim. Well, he’s since surpassed the former Freiburg man as the longest-serving coach in the Bundesliga and in professional German football history. In over 17 years at the helm, the 50-year-old has taken Heidenheim into the fourth tier, then the 3. Liga in 2009, then Bundesliga 2 in 2014 and then finally the Bundesliga in 2023, where again he’s inflicted pain on Bayern, overturning a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 at home last season. An eighth-place finish was a remarkable achievement and had the footballing world asking how they’d actually done it.

Sanwald and an SME success story

That brings us back to Sanwald. The 57-year-old took over the football side of the club on a voluntary basis over 30 years ago. His first job was to avoid relegation into the sixth tier. Once that had been achieved, Sanwald revealed that he went through the phonebook for the best players in the area. And soon the vision of reaching the fourth tier was born. While coach Schmidt worked with calm and concentration on the essential matter of establishing good football on the pitch, Sanwald looked at bringing in sponsors. Some of the original names from back then are still on board. He did such a good job that Sportschau referred to it as a small and medium-sized business success story. “I still wonder about our rise. It was never my goal,” Sanwald said. He’s now CEO of the club and has been on the DFL’s executive board since 2017.

First mark left in cup spectacle

Bayern got their first taste of the Heidenheim phenomenon back in the quarter-finals of the 2018/19 DFB Cup when they visited the Allianz Arena as a Bundesliga 2 club. There were nine goals scored that night in Munich in a game that “couldn’t be beaten for drama,” said kicker at the time. Bayern came from 2-1 behind at half-time to lead 4-2 just after the hour before Heidenheim levelled 12 minutes later. Robert Lewandowski finally settled matters with a penalty. But even after coming so close to an upset, Heidenheim never got carried away. They remained calm and grounded, continued to work on maturing. Success has therefore been a logical consequence of solid, hard work. That was the view of Uli Hoeneß when asked about Heidenheim and Sanwald. “From a striker in the lower leagues to a CEO in the Bundesliga – that’s learning by doing and has impressed me. I like guys who make things happen, do their thing and build something,” said the honorary president.

That building then took Heidenheim into the group stage of the Conference League, the pinnacle of the club’s long history, but the players and coaches didn’t even watch the draw. They had training at the same time. Schmidt gets his teams to train hard, doing push-ups, squats and runs in the woods. The stats show that Heidenheim run more than any other Bundesliga team. “We value passion, physicality and vigour,” said Sanwald. And yet even in Heidenheim, rough diamonds sometimes turn into gems, such as Jan-Niklas Beste and Tim Kleindienst last season, who now play for Benfica and Borussia Mönchengladbach respectively and have also played for Germany.

Wanner maturing at Heidenheim

Paul Wanner has also been playing in Heidenheim as of this season. At 16, he became Bayern's youngest player in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. He has now been loaned to Heidenheim from Munich after his spell in Bundesliga 2 with Elversberg last year. “We didn't know that he would do things like this at 18, but we hoped he would,” said Sanwald of Wanner. “I'm so pleased. I think he's one of the greatest talents we have in German football.” Wanner is now maturing at Heidenheim and in Europe.

Read up on the stats ahead of Saturday’s game: