MSV Duisburg (Germany)

MSV Duisburg is a professional football club from the city of the same name in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, who were formed in 1902 as Meidericher Spielverein. The club represented the city of Meiderich, which became part of Duisburg three years later.

By 1905, the club had risen to B class status, at the same time as they changed their title to Sport Club Viktoria Meiderich. Within four years, promotion was won to the A class following an unbeaten season. In 1915, Meiderich became the Ruhr champions.

Meidericher SV won the Niederrhein championship in 1929, qualifying for the German national championships. The feat was repeated two years later. In 1932, the club attracted a record attendance of 50,000 to Duisburger Stadion for the visit of all-conquering local rivals Schalke 04.

In the lead-up to the War, the team flirted at one point with relegation. They were crowned Duisburg champions during the War years, before being placed in 2. Liga West, Gruppe 2, after peace was restored.

Chief trainer Willi 'Fischken' Multhaup led MSV to promotion to Oberliga West in 1951 following a runners-up place. Oberliga West was one of four top-flight divisions at the time. The team went back down in 1955, but they made a return at the first attempt.

In 1963-64, MSV became a founder member of the Bundesliga, finishing as runners-up to 1. FC Köln. Tasmania Berlin were hammered 9-0 in an away game by ‘Die Zebras’, The Zebras, in 1966.

In the same year, MSV reached the final of the DFB Pokal, German FA Cup, where they went down 4-2 to Bayern München in Frankfurt. In 1968, a title change meant that the club became MSV Duisburg to reflect their standing as the biggest club in the city.

A second DFB Pokal final was reached in 1975. On this occasion, MSV suffered a 1-0 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in Hannover. Their run in the UEFA Cup the following season came to a halt in the second round against Levski Sofia.

Some fine Bundesliga seasons culminated with a place in the UEFA Cup for the 1978-79 campaign. A fine run saw victories over Lech Poznań, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, and RC Strasbourg led to a semi-final with Borussia Mönchengladbach, which ended in a 6-3 defeat on aggregate. The goals of Ronald Worm propelled the side forward at the time.

In 1981-82, MSV were relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time, leading to a further demotion four years later to the third-tier Oberliga Nordrhein. In 1989, the Zebras climbed back to 2. Bundesliga. Willibert Kremer took the team to the top flight in 1990-91 with Pierre Littbarski amongst the line-up, but MSV went straight back down after just one season. 

With Ewald Lienen in charge of team affairs, Duisburg once again won promotion in 1993-94. Yet again, they returned to 2. Bundesliga after just one season. MSV were nothing but resilient around this period. Friedhelm Funkel led the side back to the top flight in 1995-96. 

Funkel’s team made a better fist of things. Victory over Auxerre in the final of the Intertoto Cup led to UEFA Cup football once again. Duisburg reached their third DFB Pokal final in 1997-98. Once again, it would be Bayern München who would spoil the party as they won the showpiece 2-1 in Berlin. In 1999-00, the Zebras were relegated once again.

Littbarski returned as chief trainer in 2001, remaining in charge for just over a year before Norbert Meier replaced him. In May 2003, the local NRW authority gave the club the green light to replace its stadium with a new Duisburg Arena.

In 2004-05, Duisburg regained its Bundesliga spot as the new arena was nearing completion after being built in stages to allow the team to continue playing on the same site. Meier’s side lasted just one campaign at the top as Rudi Bommer arrived to become the new trainer.

Bommer took the team straight back up as season tickets hit record levels. However, Zebra fans were to be left disappointed as the team were relegated yet again after one tilt at top division football. Peter Neururer was assigned to try and regain that status. November 2009 saw another change as team boss as Milan Sasic arrived.

In 2011, Duisburg got to the final of the DFB Pokal at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Schalke 04 proved far too strong and took the trophy with a 5-0 victory. Further sad news would follow for the Duisburg faithful as they were relegated to 3. Liga at the end of the 2012-13 season.

Following a seventh-place finish in the third tier, which also saw the lifting of the Niederrhein Cup under Karsten Baumann, new trainer Gino Lettieri took the side to the 3. Liga title in 2014-15, to secure second division football. Littieri was replaced in November 2015 after a poor run of results by former MSV player Iliya Gruev.

Gruev's side rallied in the second half of the 2015-16 season to reach the relegation play-off, where they were defeated 4-1 on aggregate by Würzburger Kickers to drop down to 3. Liga. The club kept faith with the head coach, who repaid it as MSV won the league title at its first attempt.

Kevin Wolze captained the team to eighth place in the 2. Bundesliga 2017-18 campaign prior to Torsten Lieberknecht coming in as the new chief trainer in October 2018. He couldn’t prevent his team from being relegated a few months later.

Back in 3. Liga, the goals of Moritz Stoppelkamp and Vincent Vermeij fired Duisburg to the top of the table in the interrupted 2019-20 season before the team slipped after the resumption to eventually just miss out on promotion and the play-offs. Pavel Dotchev was at the helm in 2020-21 before being succeeded by Torsten Ziegner as the side struggled.

Branimir Bajic was in the position of trainer as MSV were relegated in 2023-24 down to Regionalliga West. Dietmar Hirsch was put in charge of team affairs, leading Duisburg to the title a year later, with Patrick Sussek top scoring.

MSV Duisburg will play in 3. Liga in the 2025-26 season.

My visit

MSV Duisburg 0 St Pauli 2 (Sunday 28th February 2016) 2. Bundesliga (att: 20,790)

Everything was going more or less to plan on a cold but really nice Sunday. My flight had landed from Stansted in Bonn/Cologne on time. I had dropped my bag off in Düsseldorf and then eventually had a look at the homes of Duisburger FV 08 and Eintracht Duisburg after initially going the wrong way on the U Bahn.

Time was getting on as I found my correct gate in the north west corner. There was a buildup of fans as the stewards were only allowing a few through at a time to allow stewards at the other side to frisk everyone before they could go up the steps.

There was no need to worry. I was still in with plenty of time to grab a tray of chips and a frikadel before going upstairs to find my seat that offered a brilliant view over the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena, as the MSV-Arena had been renamed for sponsorship purposes. My ticket was €20.

The near Nord Kurve had terracing downstairs, as did the far corner at the other end for away fans. An upper tier ran continuously right around the stadium. The main side had an extra section of business seats with boxes behind halfway up. It was well designed and certainly held an atmosphere.

As ever, St Pauli had an excellent following for a live TV game on a lunchtime. They filled the entire lower section at the far end, as well as a block above. The home fans were whipped up as club songs were played, as is the norm in Germany. They were not short on vocals themselves.

The Zebras went into the game with MSV deep in relegation trouble, while their visitors from Hamburg were looking at a return to the top flight. MSV showed signs of being short in confidence, but urged on by their fans, they showed some real grit.

Defences were well on top in the first half, with chances being at a minimum. I quite enjoyed it, although that could well have been down to the occasion rather than the match. The wind blew up through the open concourse, meaning the poor woman next to me was covered in crumbs every time I tried to bite into my crusty bread.

At the break, I wandered downstairs to have a look around. Queues were large for all the concessions. I had a look at the club shop in the hope of finding a programme, but nothing was doing. It was too cold for a beer, so I returned to my seat.

Duisburg really were lacking up front. I had a feeling that St Pauli would eventually carve something out. Three minutes after the break, the home keeper Michael Ratajczak made a fine save from Enis Alushi, while up at our end, a Tómané header was kept out by Robin Himmelmann.

As I thought, it was the away team who took the lead when midfielder Marc Rzatkowski fired home from the edge of the box to send the fans at the far end wild with delight. There were plenty of resigned and frustrated faces around me.

MSV made a substitution and brought on the Nigerian forward Kingsley Onuegbu. I could immediately see why they scored so few goals. Maybe it was just down to a lack of confidence as they huffed and puffed, but some reasonable balls were sent into the box, but the forwards were either in the wrong place, or their first touch was awful.

With ten minutes to go, I went downstairs. I wanted some extra photos from a different angle and to get into position for a quick getaway. As the clock ticked round to eighty-eight minutes, I left and ran across to the waiting buses for the station.

Worryingly, other fans were following me. It was obvious that it wasn’t going to be a quick ride in front of the traffic when the match finished. I made a decision to go back and jump into one of the taxis near the exit gate. My driver was being urged to get a move on, just as St Pauli scored their second goal.

My pilot was being far too courteous, though to be fair, he did get me back to the station with time to spare before my train to Dortmund. It was one of the better €10 I’d spent. I had time to grab a coffee before I went on my way to my second game of the day. I’d enjoyed my brief time in Duisburg, even if MSV had a real mountain to climb to fight off relegation.

MSV Duisburg 3 TSV Havelse 0 (Sunday 8th August 2021) 3. Liga (att: 7,661)

Generally, when I head overseas, I try to visit as many new venues as possible. On this occasion, during a long weekend in my favourite part of Germany, I was in a dilemma with several options.

There were a couple of opportunities to head to venues lower down the grades, where I’d previously taken photos that were staging games. However, these were pre-season friendlies.

I did research on the possibilities of heading south to the DFB Pokal clash between Rot-Weiß Koblenz and Jahn Regensburg, where tickets were available. In this case, the train fare and hotel costs were on the high side, plus it was likely that it would be my only game of the day.

Then the Soccerway site showed the MSV game, between two sides already dumped out of the cup in a competitive league game, and tickets were still available online. It also allowed me to see more matches on either side of it.

With my pre-printed €21.60 ticket I’d purchased online, I headed away from the youth match at Viktoria Buchholz, ready to return to the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena. Google Maps had advised I take a bus from around the corner from Duisburg-Buchholz station.

A gent in an MSV jacket also thought the same before heading off. The bus was overdue, but a train was scheduled. I ran up the steps, nearly getting on the southbound service by mistake, before joining plenty of other football fans on their way to the match aboard the correct train.

It took just four minutes to Duisburg Schlenk. From the station, it was just over ten minutes along Sternstraße, following the side of the tracks and then up Wacholderstraße to the parking areas outside the stadium.

My ticket was for the same entrance that I’d used on my previous visit, with my seat in the top corner above it. The queue was orderly as we had our checks to confirm double vaccinations and then a scan by the gate.

There was plenty of time for a wander around the concourse and for a locally brewed König Pilsener to wash down a perfect frikadelle and to take a second beer to my seat, where I was located in the family section, in what to me was just about the perfect medium-sized modern stadium.

The Zebra fans were in the mood to get behind their favourites. The club songs were belted out before and when the teams came out. The team responded from the off as Dominic Volkmer saw his header come back off the post before Marlon Frey had his effort cleared off the line in the sixth minute.

The pressure continued to mount with fans' favourite Moritz Stoppelkamp orchestrating much of the play. Eventually, the goal came after twenty-five minutes. Orhan Ademi finished neatly after an effort from Frey had been blocked.

Rolf Feltscher almost doubled the lead when through on visiting keeper Norman Quindt but fired just wide. The noise was cascading from the stands. A little lad whom I’d spotted in the queue with his dad was making a racket with some sort of plastic device down at the front, taking me back to my happy formative years.

I had a stretch at halftime, giving up on the queue for a beer. There’d be plenty of time for that in the evening back down the road in Düsseldorf. I eventually managed to get a phone signal, so I could find out the time of the trains from Schlenk, which was essential for later.

The hosts continued to have the upper hand after the restart but couldn’t force a second goal. Feltscher had an effort on target from which Quindt made an excellent save. However, they were nearly made to pay for their profligacy in front of the goal.

In the fifty-first minute, Havelse had a rare attack. Referee Patrick Kessel pointed to the spot, adjudging that an MSV defender had brought down his man. It looked like a soft decision. Yannik Jaeschke stepped up and blazed his penalty over the bar. It was a match-defining moment.

Frey had a shot well saved from Quindt before Jaeschke’s day didn’t improve, when he missed a half-chance for the visitors. In the sixty-fifth minute, referee Kessel awarded a penalty to MSV, perhaps to even out his previous call?

Stoppelkamp made no mistake to make it 2-0. Three minutes later, substitute Kolja Pusch, who had only been on the pitch for sixty seconds, scored a fine individual goal to surely settle the match. How Havelse must have rued their missed penalty.

Home coach Pavel Dotchev made several changes as his side comfortably held on to collect the points. I’d made a run for it when the stoppage time board was raised. There was a train I could catch at Schlenk at 2.58 heading back towards Düsseldorf.

This worked perfectly, as I made it with a couple of minutes to spare, as it would allow me to arrive ten minutes from the venue for my 3.30pm friendly between SG Unterrath and Duisburger SV. Perfect planning!