VfB Oldenburg

Wolfgang Sidka took VfB Oldenburg closer to the top flight than anyone before or since. As manager in 1991–92, he had the club sitting second in the 2. Bundesliga Nord, one result away from a promotion play-off against Bayer 05 Uerdingen. Oldenburg needed Uerdingen to lose; Uerdingen drew 0–0, and the chance was gone. Sidka had worn the shirt himself from 1972 to 1980 and later became club president, so the near-miss sat with someone who had already given the club most of his working life.

The club that produced that season had started as FC 1897 Oldenburg, formed by schoolboys, and took its present name only after merging with FV Germania 1903 Oldenburg in 1919. It reached the Oberliga Nord, football's top tier before the Bundesliga, and stayed there from 1949 to 1963. Promotion in 1990 sent it back up, and the 1991–92 campaign was as close as it came to going further.

Money nearly finished what Uerdingen's draw started. In 2000, Oldenburg finished bottom of its league and stared at insolvency; benefit matches against Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen kept the lights on. The club spent the following two decades short of the second tier it had once brushed against, until 2022, when winning the Regionalliga Nord and beating BFC Dynamo in the promotion play-offs sent it into the 3. Liga for the first time in its history.

At the Marschweg-Stadion, home since long before any of this, Oldenburg plays in blue and white and answers to Die Marineblauen. The ground holds 15,200.