VfR Aalen

Aalen and Heidenheim sit in the same eastern corner of Baden-Württemberg, and their meetings carry a regional name, the Ostalbderby. VfR Aalen have spent most of their history as the smaller party in the region's football, and the years when that changed are short and well defined.

The club began in 1921 as the football department of the gymnastics club MTV Aalen. The Württemberg Cup came round regularly, eight times in all, the first in 1972.

The rise came late. Aalen won the Regionalliga Süd in 2010, then finished second in the 3. Liga in 2012, which took them into the 2. Bundesliga for the first time. They stayed for three seasons. In 2013–14 they reached the last 16 of the German Cup (DFB-Pokal), their best run in that competition. Relegation followed in 2015, and in 2016 the club faced bankruptcy.

The recovery has been slower and quieter. Aalen won the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg in 2025. Home games are still played at the Ostalb-Arena, which 11,183 can fill and which locals call Rohrwang. The team is known as "Die Schwarz-Weißen" or simply "Die Aalener".

The name most often attached to the club is Dieter Hoeneß, who played there from 1973 to 1975. Those years overlap with the two Amateurliga titles of 1974 and 1975.