Karlsruher SC

Karlsruhe is in Baden-Württemberg, and for over a century the city's football has run through one address in the Wildpark. The club itself carries the name of a phoenix for a reason that has nothing to do with metaphor: Karlsruher FC Phönix, founded on 6 June 1894 by members of a gymnastics club, merged with KFC Alemannia in 1912, and the Phönix name survived a further merger in 1952 with VfB Mühlburg to form the Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix that plays today. It is still there in the club's full official title, long after the clubs that carried it separately have gone.

The two DFB-Pokal wins that bracket that defeat, over Schalke 04 in 1955 and Hamburg in 1956, remain the clearest evidence of what KSC was capable of at its peak. The club has since spent long stretches outside the top flight.

What the Wildpark is best remembered for happened in 1993, when KSC beat Valencia 7-0 in the UEFA Cup on their way to a semi-final. Winfried Schäfer was the coach who took them there and, three years later, to a losing DFB-Pokal final against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Between those two runs, the club's academy produced Oliver Kahn , who joined the youth setup in 1975, made his first-team debut in 1987 and stayed until 1994, before Bayern came calling.

Derby weekends belong to Stuttgart. The Baden-Württemberg derby against VfB Stuttgart is a big occasion in a stadium — now known as the BBBank Wildpark — that holds 33,180.