Bersenbrück

Twice in three decades TuS Bersenbrück won its way past its own level. The 1990 Niedersachsenpokal, settled on penalties against Sportfreunde Ricklingen, sent the amateurs to Hannover 96 in the DFB-Pokal, where they lost 4:0. It took until 2023 for the club to do it again, beating SC Spelle-Venhaus 3:0 in the cup final, and the reward this time was a trip to Borussia Mönchengladbach, who put seven past them without reply.

The club traces back to 1895, though the name on the badge today, TuS Bersenbrück, only dates from 1945: the wartime merger that had produced VfL Bersenbrück in 1938 was undone when occupying authorities banned the club, and it had to re-form from scratch that August. The Hase-Stadion, holding around 3,000, has been its home since.

Domestically the club has spent its history climbing to the Landesliga or Bezirksliga, winning them, and returning again a decade or so later — titles came in 1989, 2001, 2015 and 2016. The closest it has come to breaking that pattern was the 2023/24 season, when it finished runner-up in the Oberliga Niedersachsen and lost the promotion play-off to SC Weiche Flensburg 08. A Regionalliga licence had been within reach once before, in 2017/18, but the club chose not to apply for one, citing finances and infrastructure.

Alexander Bannink arrived in 2023 after a career built at Dutch clubs including FC Twente and De Graafschap, and finished his playing days at Bersenbrück two years later. The derby that matters most locally is against SC Spelle-Venhaus, played under floodlights and known simply as the Flutlichtderby.

What still eludes the club is a Niedersachsenpokal final it actually wins outright rather than on penalties, and a season in which the step up from the Oberliga finally holds.