Stuttgart U19

Both came at an academy that had gone eighteen years between the 2001 rout of FK Pirmasens and the 2:1 over RB Leipzig in 2019.

The record that matters more is older. Ten German under-19 championships, more than any other club, and seven of them landed between 1973 and 1991. Two more followed in 2003 and 2005. Nothing since.

Along the way the academy has been the senior club's main supply line. Timo Hildebrand came through it as a goalkeeper; Sami Khedira and Mario Gomez followed, and Daniel Didavi after them. Serdar Tasci went the same route.

The Robert-Schlienz-Stadion on Mercedesstraße holds around 5,000, which is enough for age-group football and a fraction of what the graduates go on to play in front of. The parent club, in white and red since 1893, gives the youth side its crest and its names — Die Roten, the Swabians. The city derby with Stuttgarter Kickers still carries its edge.

The gap sits in the league season rather than the cup. Stuttgart last took the national under-19 title in 2005, and the closest they have come since was 2019, when Borussia Dortmund beat them 5:3 in the final. Two cups in the past decade have not closed that distance.