FSV Mainz 05

Mainz sits on the Rhine, a wine-trading city that spends much of its calendar year building toward Fastnacht, and the football club there has never quite let go of the carnival spirit. Supporters call it Die Nullfünfer, a nod to the founding year, but the older nickname, Karnevalsverein, says more about the place: after home goals at the Mewa Arena, it is carnival music that plays over the tannoy, not a siren.

The club traces back to 16 March 1905, though what exists today was assembled in pieces — a merger with FC Hermannia 07 in 1912, another with Sportverein 1908 Mainz in 1919, and a forced union with the Reichsbahn sports club during the Nazi period that lasted until the war's end. For decades afterward Mainz stayed a regional and amateur side, its honours list reading Oberliga and Amateurliga titles rather than anything won in the country's top flight — the closest thing to a crowning achievement was the Deutscher Amateurmeister title in 1982.

What changed the club's standing was a manager rather than a trophy. Jürgen Klopp spent eleven years there as a player, captained the side, and then took over as coach, dragging Mainz into the Bundesliga for the first time in 2004. The club has never won the German title or the cup — a semi-final in 2009 remains the best cup run — but reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Conference League in 2025/26, its furthest run in Europe. Among those who came through its academy, André Schürrle went on to win the World Cup in 2014.

Derby weekends point east and south: Eintracht Frankfurt for the Rhein-Main-Derby, and Kaiserslautern for the older, more local rivalry. Both send crowds into the Mewa Arena, built in 2011 on the site of the old Bruchwegstadion, where 34,034 seats fill in red and white.