VfR Mannheim

Mannheim's football history begins with a merger — three clubs came together in 1911 to form what carries the founding date 1896 in its own name, tracing back to the Mannheimer Fußball-Gesellschaft founded on 1 August that year. That inherited number sits in the club's official title to this day: Verein für Rasenspiele Mannheim 1896.

The club reached the top once, in 1949, when it was crowned Deutscher Meister. It had already claimed the South German championship in 1925 and would go on collecting regional silverware for decades afterwards — Gauliga Baden titles through the late 1930s and into the war years, then a run of Nordbaden amateur honours stretching to 2004.

One name from the playing squad outgrew the club itself. Sepp Herberger wore VfR Mannheim's colours between 1922 and 1926, long before he took charge of the national team that won the 1954 World Cup.

Across the city sits Waldhof Mannheim, and the fixture between the two carries the weight of a proper Stadtduell — a derby with no love lost, played out under the name Mannheimer Derby whenever the draw brings the neighbours together.

The club plays in blue, white and red, colours that gave it its own nickname among supporters. Home games are staged at the Rhein-Neckar-Stadion, a ground holding 8,000, of which 2,000 seats — a modest arena for a name that once topped Germany, but one that keeps the club rooted in the same city it grew out of in 1896.