FC Kray (Germany)

Fußballclub Kray 1909/31, or more commonly FC Kray, is a football club from the district of Kray in the North Rhine Westphalian German city of Essen. The club was formed through a merger of DJK SV Kray 09 and VfL Kray 1931 in 1987.

DJK SV Kray 09

The club was formed by Willi Schröer, a youth who received a football from his father for Christmas, along with fellow enthusiasts in 1909, as SV Kray 09, starting out life playing at a ground near to the Joachim coal mine.

In 1911 they moved to a new venue on Döppelhahn in the south of Kray. A merger in 1920 with the catholic based DJK-Sportverband saw the club retitled as DJK SV Kray 09. The club also formed an athletics department.

Because of popularity the club looked for another home and settled at Kortstraße where the Hövelschen brickworks previously stood. In 1933 the side were placed in 2. Klasse Westdeutschen Spielverbandes before they as a club with religious background were forced to cease playing in 1934, also losing their home ground.

The club was re-established in April 1950 after the DJK sports association restarted. The team was placed in 2. Kreisklasse Gruppe Essen-Süd-Ost, with promotion to 1. Kreisklasse arriving in 1955-56.

A 2-1 defeat to Rot Weiss Essen in the DFB Pokal in 1960-61 was a major highlight at DJK SV but that was succeeded when the club won the DJK National Championship title defeating DJK Augsburg in front of 20,000 spectators in Nürnberg.

The team had been promoted to regional football but the 1963-64 campaign saw them relegated back to 1. Kreisklasse. The following season saw SV reach the DJK National Championship final which was lost in Düsseldorf.

Several other sport departments were added to the club over the ensuing years before the football clubs final 1986-87 season ended in eleventh place of the Kreisklasse A Südost.

VfL Kray 1931

As their title suggests, VfL were formed in 1931, with Wilhelm Kefenhörster providing the club with its first bar at his home, while he leased a plot of land on Wilhelmstraße, now Riddershofstraße, for the club to play home matches in Kray-Süd.

Initially the team played in Kreisliga Gaus Gelsenkirchen before switching to Gau Essen in 1935 at a time when Germany was under control of the Third Reich. In 1945 following War, VfL were given a place in the local Bezirksliga.

Promotion to 2. Kreisklasse was achieved in 1952-53, before dropping back down a year later. In 1962 VfL moved to a new pitch with a clay surface on Buderusstraße not far from Krayer Straße, which would eventually become Kray Arena, then winning promotion to 1. Kreisklasse in 1962-63.

After reconstruction of German football following the introduction of national football through the Bundesliga, VfL won promotion to the Bezirksliga Niederrhein in 1963-64. VfL were relegated in both 1972-73 and 1973-74.

From 1973 extra sports departments were added to the club prior to player-trainer Hans Legenbauer helping the side to promotion in 1979-80 after victory in the play-off against Sportfreunde 07 as VfL went up to Ruhrbezirksklasse football.

FC Kray 1909/31

The youth sections ran the food and drink sales at both VfL and DJK SV, working together and coming up with the idea of merging to form a new club with four senior and thirteen youth sides.

FC Kray were awarded VfL’s place in the Bezirksliga, with DJK a level lower at the time in the Kreisliga, also taking up residency at VfL’s Kray Arena. In their inaugural 1987-88 season, FCK won promotion to Landesliga Niederrhein, going on to win that competition in 1988-89.

This promoted Kray to the fourth tier Verbandsliga Niederrhein, where they remained until the end of the 1992-93 campaign when they were relegated to the Landesliga, where FCK remained until winning the 1999-00 Landesliga title to return to the Verbandsliga.

The team landed a seventh place finish on their return, backing it up with another mid-table finish until the club was relegated in usual circumstances at the end of the 2002-03 season after what should have been a safe finishing position.

However, Rheydter SV from the higher Oberliga declared themselves bankrupt, and were given a place in the Verbandsliga to restart. Kray were forced to drop down to Gruppe 1 of the Landesliga under new trainer Wolfgang Priester.

A third place in 2006-07 showed promise followed by the appointment of new head coach Andreas Egler in 2008, before the side came close to relegation to Bezirksliga in 2009-10 after Jürgen Lucas and co-trainer Markus Schnarre took over team affairs.

Therefore, it was somewhat of a surprise as FCK won the Landesliga title the following 2010-11 season to go up to the Niederrheinliga as the Verbandsliga had been renamed under head coaches Rudi Risse and Wolfgang Keiter.

Kray Arena was fitted with a new artificial pitch as FCK lifted the Niederrheinliga title to win promotion to the fourth national tier Regionalliga West after defeating KFC Uerdingen 3-0 on aggregate in the play-offs after a reorganisation of the German league system.

However, their spell lasted just one season after having to start the season at the Uhlenkrugstadion home of neighbours Schwarz-Weiß Essen as a bottom place finish sent Kray back to the Niederrheinliga.

A second place finish in 2013-14 with Timur Karagülmez leading the scoring led to victory in the play-offs and a return to Regionalliga West. Again, this meant playing games at Uhlenkrug while Kray Arena was improved with the building of the Rudi-Risse-Tribüne.

Both derbies with Rot Weiss Essen were played at Stadion Essen while only games with lesser fans could be played at Kray Arena. The team survived in 2014-15 but went down the following season with the same stadium restrictions in operation under coach Michael Lorenz.

Another problem that Kray Arena faced was complaints from local residents about the progress and bigger crowds. Peace was resolved in 2016 as measures were put in place to reduce noise and traffic.

However, the amiable resolution failed to assist on the pitch as FCK were relegated in bottom place of the fifth level Oberliga Niederrhein in 2016-17. Fifth place ensued in the Landesliga Niederrhein Gruppe 2 season of 2017-18.

Michele Lepore led the side to the Landesliga title in 2018-19 before he was replaced by Philip Kruppe whose team sat in twelfth place in the fifth tier Oberliga Niederrhein when the season was ended early owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus.

Dennis Brinkmann was at the helm in 2020-21, another season abandoned early because of the pandemic with Kray in the same placing. Christian Mikolajczak was appointed as head trainer for the 2021-22 season.

FC Kray will play in Oberliga Niederrhein in the 2021-22 season.

My visit

FC Kray u15s 2 FSV Duisburg u15s 2 (Saturday 7^th August 2021) C Junioren Friendly (att: c45)

Awaking in Wuppertal I had a busy Saturday’s itinerary lined up on my latest jaunt around the cities and football venues of North Rhine Westphalia. I was happy with my planning as I took the train to Düsseldorf where I dropped off my bag in a left luggage locker.

My initial plans saw me earmark the match in the Fußball-Freizeit-Liga between Arminia Essen v 1. SC BW Wulfen III at the home of TuS Essen-West with an 11am kick off. It was handy enough for my 2pm game, but the possible standard of football deterred me.

I’d even considered heading to the Bayer Uerdingen Cricket Club in Krefeld which was staging an international T20 tournament between Germany, France and Norway. I definitely had no idea of what standard that would be, and the ground wasn’t conducive to public transport, so it was quickly erased from my mind.

I had done some real investigation work, trying to find a game at prominent venues. I was confident I had come up trumps with the game at Kray Arena with the same start time, even if it was an underage game.

The S Bahn service took me to Steele station, stopping nearly everywhere on route. Not to worry. It was always good to discover new places. From alighting it took me around twenty minutes to head north along Krayer Straße towards the ground.

Heading up Buderusstraße, I was delighted to see the gates to Kray Arena open, and then see players warming up. I wasn’t sure of the age group. My friend Thorsten put me right when I messaged him with a guide to the junior “Junioren” grades.

‘A’ was under 19, ‘B’ under 17 and ‘C’ under 15, though it was noticeable there were one or two big lads among them. Nowhere near as big as the ref Niklas Grziwa mind. That said, he was probably the biggest person in the ground.

The stadium was neat and functional. A large clubhouse stood well back from the entrance side of the pitch, with a small shelter also with distance from the pitch. Various other buildings housed multiple changing rooms.

Both ends had high fencing behind them to stop errant shots going out of the ground. A second pitch, also with artificial turf was staging plenty of younger age stuff, with plenty of parents looking on.

The far side was where I headed to take a seat in the elevated Rudi-Risse-Tribüne which had a four lane straight track dividing it from the pitch. Everything was in good order and tidy without anything out of place. Kray, pronounced “Kry”, were obviously a well run club.

They also looked to train their young charges well as I was treated to an entertaining game of a good technical level. The large pitch ensured play wasn’t congested. While it’s nice to see players play from the back, I thought one or two took it a step too far. Their confidence was high.

It was an equally matched encounter with the sides finishing the first half of their thirty-five minutes each way game with rolling substitutions at 0-0. Not that it was short on incident. The Kray keeper made a couple of good stops while FSV hit the upright.

It was also a joy to see parents of all backgrounds mixing. Kray was obviously an area of high diversity. It was also becoming an area of high volume as one of the home team coaches was losing his rag.

His side were becoming increasingly frustrated and were starting to shoot when a pass was the better option. Meanwhile his keeper made a fine stop from a glancing header. The Kray number 15 was most guilty of shooting on sight. He got a proper salvo from his coach.

I thought it a little over the top. The young lad had a chunter to himself. He was faster and stronger than a lot of his opponents. Perhaps the coach was justified as the player broke down the wing on fifty-six minutes before rolling the ball square for Ali Bakri to slot home.

The lead was extended seven minutes later when Bakri was on the spot to bag his second after the FSV defence failed to clear a low cross after the visiting keeper had earlier pulled off a great stop.

The coach wasn’t done with his tirade just yet. It now the turn of referee Herr Grziwa to feel his wrath after he gave a free kick against Kray. The man in black simply help the game up and stared in silence for several seconds. A brilliant response.

It was shortly after this that I decided to head off. I had a bus I needed to catch to make the 2pm game at Stadion Essen between Rot Weiss and SC Verl. I felt cheated later in the day when I checked the fulltime score on the excellent Fussball.de website.

FSV had scored twice in the last two minutes. I had visions of the ref, sat in his favourite bar or restaurant, of which I’m sure he had several, spending his match fee in dedication to the shouty Kray coach. That’s certainly what I’d have been doing.

I’d checked my route at the break. The gate was open behind the youngster’s pitch and clubhouse. This led me back to where Krayer Straße crossed over the Autobahn and where an old colliery wheel stood as a memory to the areas former main industry.

I was impressed with Kray as a whole. It seemed a nice place, with plenty of bars and shops. The people appeared to be OK. I was glad I’d selected my particular game as I waited for the number 170 bus to take me across the city to its major club.

 

 

 

 

 

Grün-Weiß Wuppertal (Germany)

 

Tus Grün-Weiß Wuppertal 89/02 is a sports club based in the Oberbarmen district of the North Rhine Westphalian German city of Wuppertal. The club was formed on May 1st 1902 and has a complicated history of name changes and mergers.

Initially formed as Barmer Männerturnverein, as a men’s gymnastics club before another local club, Sportfreunde Wichlinghausen joined forces which saw a name change to TSK 02 Barmen.

Meanwhile, another club, SV 09 Barmen, formed in 1909, joined forces with Oberbarmer TV in 1911 before merging with SSV Rittershausen in 1923 to form TuRa Barmen. This clubs’ handball department played at the highest national level of the sport.

A merger between TuRa Barmen and TSK 02 Barmen in 1945 saw the club become TSV Grün-Weiß Wuppertal. In 1947-48 the team won promotion to Bezirksklasse Niederrhein, which at the time was the equivalent of one of many third national level divisions.

1948-49 saw a further promotion, to Landesliga Niederrhein with the green and whites finishing runners-up in Gruppe 1 behind local rivals Cronenberger SC. The games between the sides were played at Stadion am Zoo and attracted crowds of 8,000 and 14,000.

Twelve months later the side finished third and then fourth in 1951-52 before a gradual decline eventually saw the club fail to retain their position in the newly created Verbandsliga Niederrhein for the 1955-56 season, remaining in Landesliga which dropped down a tier.

Grün-Weiß were demoted further to the Bezirksklasse a couple of years later. Worse was to come in the 1958-59 campaign as the team was relegated to Kreisklasse, the equivalent of the fifth level.

Dieter Fern offered some cheer to club regulars while in the junior set up in the early 60’s before heading to a future Bundesliga career with Kickers Offenbach and then Vfl Bochum. Other than that, it was a staple of local regional competition for many years to come.

In 1994, another local club TuS Grün-Weiß Blombacherbach joined forces with TSV Grün-Weiß Wuppertal to form the current TuS Grün-Weiß Wuppertal. Blombacherbach brought their own rich history to the table.

Formed in July 1889, they merged with TV Germania Laaken, formed in 1909, to create TB Laaken-Blombacherbach. Elsewhere in Wuppertal, FC Kemna was founded in November 1930 before they merged with TB Laaken-Blombacherbach to form TuS Grün-Weiß Blombacherbach in 1937.

An independent group of recreational footballers played at Blombacherbach, remaining with them when they went off to form SC Breite Burschen Barmen 1996 and creating a cult club with their own extended membership.

TuS Grün-Weiß Wuppertal stopped using Sportanlage Rauental in 2011 for their other sport departments, which included table tennis, badminton, pilates and gymnastics while football remained at Sportpark Höfen.

The junior football set up at the club flourished from the end of the previous century, as the junior set up at Borussia Dortmund spotted the promise of Grün-Weiß youngster David Vržogić in 1998 as he set out on his way to Germany under 19 caps and a flourishing club career.

Björn Kluft was picked up from the club junior section to join that of Bayer Leverkusen in 1999. Richard Sukuta-Pasu was another notable junior who made the move to Bayer Leverkusen in 2000.

Kolja Pusch followed a similar path to Kluft in 2005 at the start of an impressive career. The 2011-12 season saw the team rise from the Kreisliga to Bezirksliga Niederrhein, where they finished as runners-up in Gruppe 3 in 2012-13.

Former SV Wuppertaler star and Senegal international Jean-Louis Tavarez joined the club to strengthen the squad. The move worked as Grün-Weiß lifted the 2013-14 Gruppe 2 title. However, their place in the Landesliga lasted just one season as the side were relegated.

Luciano Velardi became team boss from 2015 as his team returned to Gruppe 2 of the seventh tier Bezirksliga Niederrhein. ended 2016-17 in seventh position in Gruppe 1 before being relegated in bottom place of Gruppe 2 after the departure of Velardi.

The 2018-19 season saw the team escape relegation in the eighth tier Wuppertal-Niederberg Kriesliga A play-offs before a promising fifth place finish in 2019-20 when the season ended early owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus.

The pandemic also ended the 2020-21 campaign early with Grün-Weiß sat in fifth position under trainer Andre Brieger.

TuS Grün-Weiß Wuppertal 89/02 will play in Niederberg Kreisliga A in the 2021-22 season.

My visit

TuS Grün-Weiß Wuppertal 2 Gehörlosen-Sportverein Düsseldorf 1916 3 (Friday 6^th August 2021) Friendly (att: c50)

Early in July 2021 it was leaked that an announcement would see Germany and the UK allowing visitors from either nation without the need to vaccinate afterwards, providing you had both C-19 vaccinations.

Not needing a second invitation, I jumped on the opportunity to grab return flights from Stansted to Köln Bonn Airport for just £20. I also booked an additional day off work and amended some personal appointments to make a long weekend of it.

As ever I had made some plans for matches and hotels, but it was a precarious hobby leading to several changes. Nonetheless, I was in good form when I headed to the airport after a good brekkie to soak up an excellent social the previous evening.

I was positive that I had filled in the correct forms online. It was nevertheless quite a good feeling when the Ryanair member of staff confirmed it as I checked in. The flight was on time. I’d spent a few quid extra on guaranteeing a window seat, which always helps me take a nap.

While I was one of the last off the flight, experience worked in my favour. I was also last on the first bus to take us to customs across the airport, meaning I’d be first off. It was an unusual feeling having my passport stamped for the first time in Europe, since the UK and left the EU.

The custom official asked me where I would be located and what was the purpose of my visit. I was through and free to enjoy. I got a move on through the large airport and headed for the station, even making an earlier train than intended.

Now it was time to head to Wuppertal, after changing trains at Köln/Deutz. I was being messaged by my Leverkusen based pal Marius who would be joining me. I had contacted other pals from the previous year, but all were busy or heading to other games.

My intended match when I drew up my list was SC Sonnborn v SuS Niederbonsfeld with a 7.30 kick off. I had called in at the host club on my previous visit to Wuppertal and fancied seeing a game there. Alas, they postponed earlier in the week.

Marius had come up trumps with an alternative 8pm start at Grün-Weiß Wuppertal. I hadn’t previously heard of them, like many sides in the region, but I was willing to learn. And their Sportpark Höfen ground looked like somewhere I’d enjoy.

Marius was waiting at the main station in the city. I headed off to the nearby four-star Flemings Express Hotel to check in. What a bargain it proved to be for just £38 for the night. The room was modern, spacious and the hotel in a perfect location.

Meanwhile, my mate said he had received a recommendation for a bar called Kippchen. Unbelievably, it was the same place I had used last time. It was busy the post work drinkers, as we caught up and enjoyed some fine Diebels pilsner.

All too soon it was time to board the train to travel a few miles west along the Wupper valley to Oberbarmen, which was also the terminus of the Schwebebahn. Unfortunately, there was no time for a ride on the upside-down monorail on this occasion.

Some locals were sat about drinking. Marius told me that Wuppertal had rather an earthy reputation. It was less than a ten minute walk along Höfen to the ground. As usual, admission was free for lower grade friendly matches.

The venue was indeed a cracker. It seemed to be built into a kind of former pit, with extremely high rock faces bordering the far side and behind the top goal. The main side had a decent open terrace, with facilities at the rear. All very photogenic.

I had even less of a club about this evening’s visitors. The excellent Fussball.de website didn’t offer any previous league details. Google Maps didn’t offer me any help. Gehörlosen was nowhere to be found.

Their veteran goalkeeper, who I’d guess was well into his fifties, was trying to set up the video camera next to us on the flat area outside the clubhouse next to us at the back of the terrace before someone from the club arrived to take command.

It was immediately apparent that we were not about to witness a top level encounter. Play was slow and mistake ridden on the artificial surface. Looking at the green and white’s schedule I think the game saw some trialists and lower ranked players getting a run out.

Within a few minutes, Grün-Weiß managed to miss two absolute sitters, the second of which had to be seen to be believed. Shortly after they managed to go ahead just as Palle arrived after a delay.

He was also a Bayer Leverkusen fan, who Marius was staying with in Wuppertal before they both had to get up at 5am the following morning to head to Lokomotive Leipzig to watch their side in the DFB Pokal, the German FA Cup. It would be their first permitted away game in nearly two years. It’s fair to say that they were looking forward to it.

We’d nearly finished our Warsteiner beer. Marius wasn’t impressed. I went for a walk round the ground to take some snaps before returning with more bottles. I mentioned that they also had Astra from Hamburg, which got short shrift. I didn’t mind either to be honest.

The club had tried to encourage fans along to their previous match with the promise of bratwursts and cold beer. It was therefore a slight disappointment that were no sausages tonight. Worse things have happed to me.

The away side drew level before the break and then took the game by the scruff of the neck after the restart with two quick goals. Their gaggle of fans seemed most polite. A few claps rather than any shouting. The cameraman confirmed that the club did not belong to a league and only played friendlies.

That was something we could not accuse the referee Michael Scholl of, as he gave the impression that he enjoyed being in control. He bellowed at any offenders as he ran the game without linesmen.

The longer the game went on, the louder he shouted. He had a proper go at the home coach, which was translated to me by my mates as “do you want me to show you a short cut to the showers?”.

Late in the day, the aging visiting custodian made a proper pig’s ear of trying to play out from the back and found a home forward with a wayward pass in front of an open goal. He made no mistake to make the score 2-3, but there would be no time for an equaliser.

No doubt there’d be better matches at Sportpark Höfen throughout the season. The lack of sausages or online players details or goal scorers on the usual web sources perhaps gave a view to the importance of the game. I was just happy to get my weekend underway at such a charismatic venue.

Palle kindly volunteered to drop me off back at the pub, doing his very best Wuppertal tourism bit along the way, explaining the city and pointing out some of the landmarks as we went.

The city bore a resemblance to many in West Yorkshire and East Lancashire, with a former textile industry but now with high unemployment and a dim view among locals of a high immigration rate. The Bayer chemical plant was originally from Wuppertal until expansion led to move next to the Rhine in Leverkusen.

We drove past the old home of Friedrich Engels, the prominent Marxist, and a site that was once a popular brewery but was now a nondescript building. I thought that the redeveloped city centre was quite impressive. Not unlike Bradford.

I was regaled with the take of Tuffi, the female elephant who fell from the Schwebebahn, which led to further reading a little later. The lads said that they would have joined me for more drinks but had a potentially huge day ahead of themselves. I’d be seeing Marius a few days later.

Baying farewell I headed back to Kippchen, where some of the previous crowd were by now well into a mega session. Inge, the amiable old lass in command who everyone seem to know had acquired a helping hand. 

I decided to put Gehörlosen into Google Translate to see if it had an Anglicised name. It sure did. It wasn’t a place. It means deaf, with the club catering for those with that condition. I wonder of the ref realised when he was shouting. It explained the sign language I had seen been used and the supporters being seemingly polite.

I was close to heading off, also mindful of a busy Saturday ahead. Then I made a new friend. This relative youngster had the unmistakable grin of someone who’d be suffering the following morning. His work tools were hanging out of his cargo trousers. He’d obviously been very thirsty after knocking off.

He was trying to chat to me but didn’t seem to understand that I was English and didn’t speak German. He just smiled and ordered me a beer, then another one and seemed happy enough clinking glasses and burbling away.

Then he bought me a shot, which you swallowed some orange powder, like sherbet first. When in Rome, as the saying goes. He tried to settle up with a €50 note. Inge helped him count out a huge pocket of coins instead. It was entertaining if nothing else.

I bought us both a large beer and paid my own bill which had been accumulating as they marked my beermat each time I ordered. It was a bar which offered characters and excellent value. It would be my local if I lived there.

Home for the night was no more than five minutes away. Fortunately, I’d prepared and had a beef roll waiting for my supper. What a great start to what would turn into a brilliant few days.

 

 

BV Altenessen (Germany)

Ballsportverein Altenessen 06 is a football club formed on May 6^th 1906 in the Altenessen district of the German city of Essen. The club was formed by a group who played street football under the name of Regilia.

Once organised into a proper club, they were accepted by the local football authority, the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Spielverband in 1910 as a ground was found in the corner of Kaiser Wilhelm Park in Essen-Altenessen.

The team quickly found success winning the local B-Klasse to gain promotion to A-Klasse, and then becoming Ruhrbezirksmeisterschaft, champions of the Ruhr district, after defeating Preußen Duisburg.

Following World War One the club invested in setting a youth team, which was rare at the time. It would pay dividends in later years as BVA 06, as the club are commonly known, were placed in Liga-Klasse because of their strength.

In 1925-26 the team became Ruhrgaumeister, champions of the Ruhr, and West German runners-up which led to Altenessen playing in the German championship with crowds of 30,000 watching them in action at Radrennbahn in Essen.

BVA’s form continued, leading to them reaching Bezirksklasse in 1931-32, where they would play one season before as BV Preußen Altenessen becoming members of Gauliga Niederrhein in 1933-34, which was one of sixteen top tier leagues under the rule of the Third Reich.

The team dropped back down to the Bezirksliga after just one season, winning the title in 1936-37 to return to the Gauliga, where they finished bottom of the table twelve months later to drop straight back down.

The club merged with Rot-Weiss Essen to become KSG RWE/BV 06 Essen for the 1943-44 campaign, with the side finishing the final Gauliga campaign of 1944-45 in sixth position. Both clubs went their separate ways once again at the end of the War.

BVA 06 partook in Gruppe 1 of Landesliga Niederrhein in 1947-48 as German football gradually organised itself following the conflict. This competition became one of many third level leagues from 1949-50 as the club stabilised their position with safe finishes until the side was relegated in 1953-54.

The Bezirksliga then dropped down a further tier, to step 5 following the introduction of Verbandsliga Niederrhein in 1956-57. However, BVA 06 won a couple of promotions to rise to the third tier Verbandsliga in 1959-60, finishing ninth on their return.

The 1961-62 campaign saw Altenessen climb to fifth place prior to narrowly escaping relegation in 1963-64 before finally succumbing at the end of the 1965-66 season. The team bounded back to win the Gruppe 3 Landesliga title in 1966-67 to reclaim their previous status.

Mid-table finishes were the order of the day for several seasons with sixth in 1972-73 the stand out performance prior to relegation the following season. Once again Altenessen regrouped to win Gruppe 1 Landesliga in 1974-75.

BVA’s return to third level football lasted just one season as they dropped back down before again winning their Landesliga group in 1977-78. Verbandsliga Niederrhein had become a fourth tier league by the time Altenessen returned following promotion in 1986-87.

The team was relegated in bottom place in 1988-89 before the club would spend the following decade in Gruppe 1 and 3 of the Landesliga. The highlights were third place in 1990-91 before a further relegation occurred in 1999-00.

Finding themselves in the seventh tier Bezirksliga, playing in Gruppe 4, from where they were relegated further in 2002-03 down to Kreisliga A. The rot had set in as BVA were demoted in 2004-05 to Kreisliga B.

Three Gruppe 2 runners-up spots in 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2009-10 finally paid off on the final occasion with promotion back to Kreisliga A. However, the step up in standard proved too much with BVA relegated after just one season.

Ibrahim Filinte took charge of the team but was unable to put together a side looking to challenge for honours before the side sealed a return to Kreisliga A in 2014-15 with Otto Prell taking over as head coach.

He led his team to fifth and then third place in 2016-17 before he was replaced in 2017-18 by Marco Brinkmann who was unable to save the side from relegation. The crazy 2018-19 Gruppe 2 Kreisliga campaign saw the club go through seven different coaches.

Dennis Bruhnke restored some stability with his appointment. BVA was sat in third place in 2019-20 when the season was halted early owing to the outbreak of COVID-19 as Bah Muhamed led the scoring.

Altenessen led the division in 2020-21 when play was suspended.

BV Altenessen will play in Kreisliga B Gruppe 2 Essen in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Friday 28th August 2020

I awoke in the West German city of Essen after another fantastic day exploring new places and generally broadening the mind. With a few hours to kill before meeting up with my pals Marius and Thorsten for evening football I wanted to drain every last drop out of the city.

Leaving my more extravagant than usual choice of accommodation at GHOTEL hotel & living I headed for the U Bahn at Essen Hbf to head to the north of the city and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park stop.

I’d managed to pick out a couple of clubs in close proximity that looked to have stands according to Google Maps and were of enough prominence to have a page on the English version of Wikipedia, which was usually an indication of having a history of relative note.

Of course, one downfall of the App is it doesn’t always send you the right way for the best chance of entry or at least to get photos. That is where my resolution and stubbornness come to the fore as I’m not beaten in my quest too often.

On this occasion I walked round the top end of the park before finding the gates to Sportplatz am Kaiserpark locked on Waisenstraße. I thought there might be a way in through a gap on Stankeitstraße but that turned out to be a school.

Not to be outdone I decided to have a look to see if there were any vantage points from inside Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park. Hey presto I won again after finding a gap against the wall by the footpath on the west side of the ground.

I’m glad I made the effort. It was a pretty little venue with a small grass bank on three sides interspersed with shrubbery and trees and a smart low stand down the other touchline. The pitch was of the artificial 3G variety.

The beautiful park got a proper look as I crossed through it before leaving along Palmbuschweg back to the main Altenessener Straße from where I took the short walk to the Stadion Bäuminghausstraße home of local rivals TuS Helene Essen.