Kilia Kiel

In the 1920s Eduard Zaworski played for Kilia and was invited by the Reichstrainer, Otto Nerz, to a training camp ahead of the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Kilia reached the final round of the Northern German Championship in 1925 and again in 1927, when they finished fourth.

The club began as a quarrel. In 1902, 14 young players left 1. Kieler Fußballverein von 1900, a forerunner of Holstein Kiel, over what they called the abuse of power by older members. The Kieler Derby is still played with no love lost. The wooden grandstand at the Kilia-Stadion dates from 1919 and is the oldest surviving grandstand in northern Germany.

Tobias Homp left Kilia in 1985 for the Bundesliga with Hamburger SV, and he won the DFB-Pokal with them in 1986–87. Sidney Sam passed through the youth side in 2001–02, then went on to Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke 04 and the German national team.

The 2001/02 season brought promotion to the Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein. Kilia withdrew after a single season of their own choosing and kept sliding until 2011, when they were in the Kreisliga, the ninth tier.

Kilia won the Verbandsliga Schleswig-Holstein-Ost in 2015 and again in 2020. The Landesliga Schleswig-Holstein-Mitte followed in 2021, and the Oberliga Schleswig-Holstein in 2023.

In 2025 the Red Shirts won the Oberliga title again. They also took the Kieler Kreispokal for the fourth time in five years, after wins in 2021, 2022 and 2023.