Fortuna Düsseldorf (German football club)

From the origins to the German champion (1895-1945)

On May 5, 1895, the Turnverein Flingern 1895 was founded and developed into one of the great traditional German clubs. The aim of the club was "physical training and exercise". In May 1911, the football club Alemania 1911 was founded. A year and a half later, in 1912, it was renamed Fußballklub Fortuna 1911, and in mid-1913 it merged with Düsseldorfer Fußballklub Spielverein, founded on 1 May 1908, to form Düsseldorfer Fußballklub Fortuna 1911. This in turn merged with Turnverein Flingern 1895 on 15 November 1919 to form Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895. The naming after the Roman goddess of fate and fortune was inspired by a horse-drawn carriage from a bread factory named Fortuna that happened to pass the club's founders. The club logo of Fortuna Düsseldorf shows a stylized white "F" for Fortuna on a red, red and white edged disc, followed by the smaller white numbers "9" and "5", which stand for the founding date 1895. In the colour combination of red and white, the signet corresponds to the main mountainous colours of the Düsseldorf city coat of arms.

Since the 1920s Fortuna played regularly in the highest class of the West German Spiel-Verband. In 1927, the first participation in the final round of the German championship succeeded, but Fortuna was already eliminated in the round of 16 with 1:4 against Hamburger SV. Two years later, Fortuna again qualified for the finals, this time losing 1:5 to SpVgg Fürth in the round of 16. In 1931, Fortuna won the West German title and thus participated in the finals for the third time. Once again, the final was in the round of 16 after a 2:3 n. V. against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Two years later, Fortuna again took part in the finals as West German runners-up, this time making it through to the last 16 against a representative of the less competitive south-east, Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz. In the other two rounds, too, they managed to march through to the final without conceding a goal against Arminia Hannover and EintrachtFrankfurt. On 11 June 1933, the club became German champions, beating FC Schalke 04 3-0 in the championship final, which took place in Cologne - the club they had lost to 1-0 in the West German final on 30 April. To this day, this is the greatest success in the club's history. Until the Second World War, Fortuna took part in the finals five more times between 1936 and 1940 as champions of the Gauliga Niederrhein. In 1936 the club reached another final (1:2 n. V. against 1. FC Nuremberg) as well as a third place in 1938. Furthermore the club reached the final of the Tschammer-Pokal in 1937 (1:2 against FC Schalke 04). The most important player during this period was Paul Janes, who played the most international matches of all previous players of the club with 71 games.

First Division (1947-1963)

From 1947 until the introduction of the Bundesliga in 1963, Fortuna played in the Oberliga West, with the exception of the 1949/50 and 1960/61 seasons, when they were relegated to the second division of the West, but both times managed to finish second in the table and were promoted again directly. Most of the time Fortuna placed in the midfield of the Oberliga, the best finish being a third place in the 1958/59 season. The most important player in the post-war period was Anton "Toni" Turek, who was in goal for the German national team in the 1954 "Miracle of Bern" and was elevated to "football god" by radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann because of his achievements. In 1949, Düsseldorf had narrowly missed out on staying in the league, then had the chance of a belatedly scheduled relegation round, but the team finished bottom of the group there and had to be relegated to the second division.

During the Oberliga period, Fortuna reached the DFB Cup final three more times, but lost all three finals (1957 against Bayern Munich with 0:1, 1958 against VfB Stuttgart with 3:4 n. V. and 1962 with 1:2 n. V. against 1. FC Nürnberg).

As the placings in the post-war period had mostly been in the midfield, Düsseldorf failed to qualify for the newly introduced Bundesliga in 1963. From then on, the club played in the Regionalliga West. All the clubs from the former Oberliga of the same name that had failed to qualify for the new top division were assigned to this league.

Regional league with one-year Bundesliga intermezzo (1963-1971)

Fortuna initially failed to qualify for the newly introduced Bundesliga in 1963. In the following three years, the club therefore played in the Regionalliga West, which had replaced the Oberliga of the same name. Although it played in the top flight from the start, it missed out on the promotion rounds to the Bundesliga in its first two seasons, finishing third twice.

In 1966, Düsseldorf finished first with only two defeats in the season and faced Hertha BSC, FK Pirmasens and Kickers Offenbach in the promotion round group 1. Before the last matchday, the Flinger were level on points with Pirmasens, so it came down to a long-distance duel between the two rivals. While Pirmasens won 2:1 against Hertha, Düsseldorf defeated Offenbach 5:1 and was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time due to the better goal difference.

In the first Bundesliga match, Düsseldorf faced Borussia Dortmund away from home. After a goalless first half, the visitors took a 1:0 lead through Jürgen Schult. A few minutes later, Dortmund equalized before Peter Meyer scored the winning goal for Fortuna in the eightieth minute. Nevertheless, Düsseldorf was relegated again after this season.

In 1971, the Flingeraner were runners-up in the Regionalliga West behind VfL Bochum, who tied on points, and again qualified for the promotion round to the Bundesliga. There, the club faced Borussia Neunkirchen, FC St. Pauli, 1. FC Nürnberg and Wacker 04 Berlin. Unbeaten in the first five games, the club was in first place in the table at the end of the round; only two draws away against St. Pauli and Neunkirchen were suffered by the club, which succeeded in returning to the highest division.

Establishment in the Bundesliga (1971-1987)

The second Bundesliga season began with an away defeat against FC Bayern Munich. Although Fortuna managed to finish fourth in the table on matchday six, they subsequently slipped into the lower half of the table and consequently found themselves in a relegation battle, which was, however, mastered with aplomb, not least due to the bribery scandal and the associated forced relegation of Arminia Bielefeld.

From 1972, Fortuna used the Rhine stadium, which had been completely rebuilt in preparation for the 1974 World Cup. This was also the beginning of the club's most successful period. Immediately after staying in the Bundesliga for the first time, the club played in the top flight and was close on the heels of Bayern from the ninth matchday onwards. However, a 2-1 away defeat to Hamburger SV threw Fortuna off course and they failed to win any of their next six games, initially slipping to fifth place. The victories at the end of the season brought Fortuna to third place with 42:26, which is still the most successful season in the club's history since the introduction of the Bundesliga.

In 1973/74, the team once again finished third in the final table. In addition, the final of the DFB Cup was reached three times in a row. In 1978 the final was lost (0:2 against 1. FC Köln), one year later Düsseldorf became DFB Cup winner for the first time after a 1:0 n. V. against Hertha BSC from Berlin by a goal of Wolfgang Seel. In the following year 1980 Fortuna became cup winner again after a 2:1 against the 1. FC Cologne. After that, no club managed to defend the title in the DFB Cup until 2002.

On 9 December 1978, Fortuna managed a 7:1 victory over Bayern Munich, which is still the highest away defeat of the current record champion in a competitive match. Furthermore, Fortuna Düsseldorf is the only club in Germany to have won 18 games in a row in the DFB Cup (from 1978 to 1981).

In the course of the sporting successes, Fortuna entered the European Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup several times in the 1970s. In 1979, the club even reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, which they lost 4-3 to FC Barcelona in Basel on 16 May 1979. The club's star during this period was Klaus Allofs, who also played for the national team at the time and was European champion in 1980 as well as the tournament's top scorer.

From the 1980s onwards, the club lost touch with the top flight of the Bundesliga, and in 1987 it was relegated from the Bundesliga for the second time - after 1967.

Elevator team (1987-1999)

The new coach was the Bosnian Aleksandar Ristić, who was in charge of the team until 1990 and from 1992 to 1996, thus becoming a defining figure of the era. The following years were marked by frequent promotions and relegations. Fortuna Düsseldorf thus advanced to become the club with the most promotions and relegations in the top four leagues in the last 20 years.

In 1989, the Flingeraner managed to win promotion again. In the same year, Düsseldorf punk band Die Toten Hosen, who are also among the club's most prominent fans, helped finance the purchase of Anthony Baffoe from Fortuna Köln. In the 1988/89 season, Sven Demandt, top scorer in the second division with 35 goals, and Michael Preetz shot Fortuna back into Germany's top division. After a repeated war of words between Ristić and the club's management, the coach left the club in 1990 for FCSchalke 04. The red-and-whites from the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently fought their way back into the league.

In the following season, the team was relegated to the second division, finishing bottom of the table. Since the 1991/92 season was exceptionally played with two additional teams as a result of German reunification, Fortuna is the only team to date to finish a season in 20th place in the Bundesliga. In the subsequent 1992/93 season, relegation followed once again, this time to the Oberliga Nordrhein.

Fortuna wanted to return to paid football in a hurry and signed Aleksandar Ristić again, who made the direct march back into the first division with the Flingeraner (1994 promotion to the 2. Bundesliga, 1995 promotion to the Bundesliga).

The club had few financial resources, so for the most part Ristić had no choice but to trust the team with which he had made the breakthrough. The club also signed a number of veteran players, such as Darko Pančev, who had scored 34 goals in the 90/91 season to help Yugoslav (Serbian) record holders Red Star Belgrade win the European Champions Cup, now the UEFA Champions League. The club's own youngsters were also given a chance to shine, with a number of youngsters, such as Ben Manga, making the step up to the first team. The attacking line-up of Mill, Pančev and Cyron was less convincing, but the defence around goalkeeper Georg Koch, who was a strong support for his team and an absolute crowd favourite, was.

After promotion, the first half of the Bundesliga did not go well and the club finished last in the table at the winter break. The highlights were the good performances in the DFB Cup. On 18 September 1995, the team defeated FC Bayern München, who were competing at the Rheinstadion with their top stars (Papin, Klinsmann, Matthäus, Scholl, etc.) and then-coach Rehhagel, 3-1 in the second round, and Fortuna narrowly missed out on the final when they lost 2-0 to KSC in the semi-finals. In the second half of the season, the team came out on top and managed to stay in the league, finishing 13th at the end of the 1995/96 season.

The following season 1996/97 was not successful, although the live band Family 5 with the song Vor, vor, Fortuna! had still evoked the team as "the power on the Rhine". After the game against the KSC, some players complained about the sometimes harsh style of their Bosnian coach. The club president at the time, Jürgen Hauswald, interfered in sporting matters and constantly argued with Ristić, whereupon the latter publicly criticised and in some cases exposed him. Hauswald then took the opportunity to dismiss Ristić in the first half of the season. Rudolf Wojtowicz, who had assisted Ristić for many years, became the new head coach. However, this measure was unsuccessful and the team was relegated again.

1995 to 1997 were Fortuna Düsseldorf's last years in the Bundesliga until their promotion in 2012. After two chaotic seasons, the club was also relegated from the 2nd Bundesliga in 1999.

Crash into the regional and upper league (1999-2004)

From 1999 onwards, the club played in the amateur classes for the duration of almost a decade - between 2002 and 2004 even in the fourth-class Oberliga. In its first season in the Regionalliga, Fortuna played in the West/Southwest season, which it finished in sixth place. This also meant qualification for the two-tiered Regionalliga starting in the following season, with the club being assigned to the Staffel Nord. Again - now for the third time - the club hired Ristić as coach, who was dismissed again during the season due to the low success. Also in the following three years, the coaching position turned into a hot seat. After the club was relegated in the 2000/01 season, it benefited from the withdrawal of the licenses of SV Wilhelmshaven and Sachsen Leipzig. At the same time, the club had run into major financial difficulties. Due to the strained economic situation of the traditional club, Die Toten Hosen agreed to sponsor the club for two years - from 2001 to 2003 - and to continue to support it beyond that.

Fortuna finished the following season in second-last place in the table, which is why they had to be relegated to the Oberliga Nordrhein. The "Flingeraner" finished their first season in the Oberliga in eighth place. A year later, Düsseldorf finished in second place; however, since SSVg Velbert, who finished first in the table, did not apply for a license for the Regionalliga Nord, Fortuna was allowed to move up instead.

Fortuna's last game in the Rheinstadion was on 3 March 2002 against Rot-Weiss Essen in front of 21,000 spectators (1:1). In autumn 2002, the Rheinstadion, which last held 56,000 spectators, was demolished to make way for a modern multifunctional arena. Individual parts of the Rheinstadion were auctioned off to get the club out of financial difficulties. Since the demolition of the Rheinstadion until the start of the 2005/06 season, the club's home ground was the Paul Janes Stadium, which after modernisation and expansion could hold 8,700 spectators.

Consolidation (2004-2008)

On 10 September 2004, Fortuna Düsseldorf played their first match in the then LTU arena against 1. FC Union Berlin with a score of 2-0, setting a new spectator record for the Regionalliga Nord with 38,123 spectators. The stadium, which has been called Merkur Spiel-Arena since 2018, has a capacity of 54,600 spectators and has served as the main venue since the 2005/06 season, after occasional "top games" had already been played there in the previous season. At that time, the team's continued lack of success and serious mistakes by the management meant that Fortuna was once again in acute danger of relegation. At the end of the first half of the 2005/06 season, the balance looked more positive: Despite the weak start with four defeats in a row, it came to a series with 23 points from ten games. At the end of the season, the team finished fifth in the table, nine points short of a promotion spot. The following season was less successful and ended in mid-table.

In the 2007/08 season, Fortuna's new team ended its black streak of 12 consecutive non-winning opening games with a 1-0 win at Union Berlin in the Regionalliga Nord. On 8 September 2007, Michael Melka set a new club record. At that point, he had gone 720 minutes without conceding a goal. He broke the old club record of Jörg Schmadtke. On matchday 9, Fortuna conceded their first goal, which meant that Michael Melka had gone 802 minutes without conceding a goal by then. He also broke Timo Hildebrand's record for "minutes played without conceding a goal since the start of the season". On 12 November 2007, coach Uwe Weidemann was dismissed despite a third-place finish in the table with only two points behind the promotion places. Until the winter break, the team was coached by manager Wolf Werner and co-trainer Uwe Klein. On 1 January 2008, Norbert Meier was officially introduced as the new head coach.

Throughout the season, Fortuna played for promotion to the 2. Bundesliga; towards the end of the season, they managed a series in which they remained unbeaten. Despite a 4-0 away win against Rot-Weiß Erfurt on the final matchday, they were defeated in a long-distance duel by their immediate rivals Rot Weiss Ahlen and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, who also won and were thus promoted to the second-highest division.

Return to professional football (2008-2013)

However, the third place meant qualification for the newly introduced single-division 3rd league, in which Fortuna was represented in the 2008/09 season. There, on 23 May 2009, Fortuna set the attendance record for third-tier football in Germany with 50,095 spectators at the home match against Werder Bremen II at the LTU Arena. The 1-0 win in this match promoted Fortuna to the 2nd Bundesliga.

The 2009/10 second division season began with a DFB Cup thriller against top-flight Hamburger SV, which was only lost on penalties. This season, Fortuna established itself in the top half of the table. Until the penultimate matchday, Norbert Meier's team even had the chance to reach the promotion relegation. In the end, however, they fell three points short of third-placed FC Augsburg, which was mainly due to Fortuna's weakness away from home. Düsseldorf ultimately finished the season in fourth place with 59 points and not only became the best promoted team, but also remained the only team in German professional football to go unbeaten in its own stadium. Goalkeeper Michael Ratajczak also conceded only one goal in the home matches of the second half of the season. With an average of over 28,000 spectators in the ESPRIT Arena at home, Fortuna achieved the best average attendance in its history.

However, the start of the following season 2010/11 failed. The club was eliminated in the first round of the DFB Cup by third-division team TuS Koblenz. The first six league games were lost in a row, so that Düsseldorf slipped to the last place in the table, which was the worst start to the season since 1991. Eventually the team stabilized, and by the winter break Fortuna had fought their way into the lower midfield of the table. The upward trend continued in the second half of the season, and the team finished the season seventh in the table. Once again, Fortuna was the strongest team in the league at home.

The start to the 2011/12 season was Fortuna's best since 2003, with no defeats in the first twelve competitive matches. At the end of the first half of the season, Fortuna were unbeaten in 26 competitive matches and with 41 points - more than any other team before - were autumn champions. In addition, Düsseldorf had been unbeaten at home for over a year. Third place in the final table meant qualification for the relegation matches to the Bundesliga.

Having reached the round of 16 in the 2011/12 DFB Cup, which had last been achieved in 1998, Fortuna met the reigning German champions and eventual double winners Borussia Dortmund. A 0-0 draw was held until the end of extra time. It was only in a memorable penalty shootout, in which two penalties had to be retaken, that Fortuna lost out.

The first leg of the relegation against Hertha BSC was played on May 10 in Berlin and ended with a 2-1 win for Fortuna.

The second leg took place on 15 May 2012 in Düsseldorf. Referee Wolfgang Stark had to interrupt the game immediately after the goal to make it 2-1 in favor of Düsseldorf due to fireworks being thrown by both blocks of supporters. Bengal fires were thrown onto the pitch from the Hertha fan block and fireworks were set off in the Fortuna fan block. This resulted in seven minutes of injury time. This injury time could not be completed at first, because Düsseldorf fans stormed onto the pitch cheering at the score of 2:2 before the regular end of the game. Among other things, a Fortuna fan tore a part of one of the penalty points out of the turf as a souvenir. Due to the commotion, players and referees left the pitch. After the intervention of stewards, police, stadium announcer and Fortuna players, the pitch was cleared after about five minutes. Hertha BSC finally agreed to finish the game after 20 minutes. Afterwards, the remaining time could be played. The game ended in a 2-2 draw, meaning Düsseldorf would be back in the Bundesliga for the 2012/13 season. However, Hertha BSC appealed the next day against the scoring of the match, which was rejected in the first instance before the Sports Court. Hertha then appealed to the DFB Federal Court, where the appeal was also rejected. After Hertha BSC accepted the DFB Federal Court's ruling, Düsseldorf's promotion was also legally perfect. Referee Wolfgang Stark filed a criminal complaint for assault against Hertha player Lewan Kobiaschwili. The latter ultimately agreed to a penalty order of 60,000 euros.

The new season began with an appeal against the DFB's verdict following several pyrotechnics offences in the previous season. The club appealed and managed to avoid a complete exclusion of spectators in the first home match against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The second ruling, which included allowing only 25,000 spectators plus 5,000 visiting fans in the first two home games against Gladbach and SC Freiburg, was accepted by the club's management after lengthy deliberation. In addition, the fine for Fortuna Düsseldorf was increased by €50,000 to €150,000.

The new season began with the first round match of the DFB Cup. Third division team Wacker Burghausen was defeated 1:0. Fortuna celebrated its Bundesliga return with a 2-0 win away at FC Augsburg. It was not until the 7th matchday that they lost their first game. Until the winter break, Fortuna was able to win many points against strong opponents, especially in their own stadium. In the DFB Cup, Fortuna reached the round of sixteen again, where they lost 0:2 to Kickers Offenbach. The good results of the first half of the season (13th place in the table with 21 points) could not be repeated in the second half of the season. The first home game against FC Augsburg was lost with 2:3. After 12 games without a win, the club slipped into the relegation zone for the first time on the last matchday after a 3-0 defeat at Hannover 96 (17th place in the table) and was thus relegated again after only one season. The unexpected defeat in Borussia Dortmund's simultaneous match against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, also threatened with relegation and two points worse off before the final matchday, meant that Fortuna had also missed out on the possibility of staying in the relegation zone after Dortmund's 2-2 equaliser in injury time was disallowed for offside.

Second division with turbulence and promotion to the Bundesliga (2013-2018)

After relegation, the club parted ways with head coach Norbert Meier by mutual agreement. His successor was the former Düsseldorf player Mike Büskens. Instead of playing for direct relegation, the club steadily approached the relegation zone. Büskens was sacked on 30 November 2013 as the club was only 15th in the 2nd Bundesliga table. Goalkeeping coach Oliver Reck held the position of head coach on an interim basis until it was taken over by Lorenz-Günther Köstner on 1 January 2014. When Köstner fell ill in April 2014, Reck again became interim coach until the end of the season. Fortuna did not lose another competitive match under him until the end of the season and climbed from 14th to 6th place in the table. At the end of the 2013/14 season, Fortuna Düsseldorf terminated Köstner's contract and hired Oliver Reck as his successor on 16 July 2014.

Under Reck, Fortuna played a good first half of the 2014/2015 season and finished 4th with 28 points at the winter break. Shortly after the start of the second half of the season, Reck was dismissed after two consecutive defeats on 23 February 2015 and Taşkın Aksoy was appointed interim coach. However, the return to the top of the table intended by the club with the dismissal did not take place, instead the downward trend continued: the team dropped from 4th to 11th place by the end of the season and played the worst second half of all clubs this season. Great resentment among parts of the fan scene was caused by the separation from long-time player and captain Andreas Lambertz (in the first team since 2003), who moved to Dynamo Dresden at the end of the season. On 14 April 2015, Fortuna Düsseldorf announced the signing of Frank Kramer as head coach from the 2015/16 season.

Kramer and the team were unable to achieve their goal for the new season - to compete for promotion. In the first half of the new season, the team was almost always at the bottom of the table. In the DFB Cup, they were eliminated in the 2nd main round by 1. FC Nürnberg with a 1:5 defeat. After the 1:1 against last-place MSV Duisburg, the club announced the dismissal of Frank Kramer on 23 November 2015. Interim coach became his co-coach Peter Hermann, who was able to win two consecutive matches with the team and led the team out of the relegation zone in the meantime. Also in the autumn, CEO Dirk Kall had to leave on 5 October 2016 after internal differences within the club had become too great. The search for a coach ended after a month with Marco Kurz taking over the coaching post. This brought a brief upswing, after which the team fell back to the relegation places with 4 defeats in a row. A new CEO, Robert Schäfer, was announced on 3 February 2016. On 13 March 2016, the club announced the dismissal of Marco Kurz after only 6 games. Friedhelm Funkel, who had already offered himself in the press after Kramer's dismissal, was appointed as the new coach on 14 March 2016. Funkel managed to stabilize the team that was teetering towards relegation and made it perfect for the club to stay in the league with two wins in the last two games. At the end of the season, the club announced that they would continue working with Funkel next season. Manager Rachid Azzouzi, on the other hand, who was responsible for the expensive, failed transfers of Didier Ya Konan and Mike Van Duinen as well as the appointment of Marco Kurz, had to vacate his post on 25 May 2016. On 14 June 2016, Erich Rutemöller voluntarily took over as director of sport, while at the same time Uwe Klein returned to the club as the new chief scout after leaving two years earlier.

In the 2016/2017 season, the team initially started better than expected and finished 6th in the table after 15 match days. In the DFB Cup, the team qualified for the 2nd main round with a sourveran 3:0 at Hansa Rostock, in which, however, they were eliminated with a 1:6 at Hannover 96, who were relegated to the first division. Between the end of November and the beginning of March, the team did not win a game and slipped down to 14th place in the table. However, the team was able to bounce back and managed a draw and two wins in the last three games to finish the season in eleventh place.

Friedhelm Funkel's second season as coach in 2017/18 marked a turnaround for the club. The team got off to one of their best ever starts to a season, drawing one and winning four in a row, and quickly settled at the top of the table. Headlines were made by the departure of co-coach Peter Hermann, who followed Jupp Heynckes to Bayern Munich in October for a fee of just under two million euros. A short performance slump followed after the elimination in the second main round of the DFB Cup, when they lost 0:1 at home against Borussia Mönchengladbach: Six winless games followed until the end of the first half of the season, which they finished in 3rd place in the table behind the surprise autumn champions Holstein Kiel and 1. FC Nürnberg. The start of the second half of the season was as successful for the team as the first half, with four wins in a row, and they consistently defended their direct promotion places. As early as matchday 32, Fortuna Düsseldorf made direct promotion to the 2018/19 Bundesliga perfect with a 2-1 win at Dynamo Dresden. Funkel was able to extend his already existing record as coach with the most Bundesliga promotions them from five to six. On the final matchday, Fortuna also secured the 2nd Bundesliga championship title with a 3-2 victory in stoppage time at 1. FC Nürnberg.

Bundesliga (2018 to 2020), relegation again and missed re-promotion.

Fortuna's return to the top flight of German football was under the club's proclaimed motto of "come to stay". Even before the start of the 2018/19 season, the team was dubbed relegation No. 1 by many media and experts due to their scarce reinforcements. Fortuna picked up four points against European Cup contenders RB Leipzig and 1899 Hoffenheim in September, followed by six games without a point, including a 7-1 away defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt. The turning point came in the home match against Hertha BSC on matchday 11, which the team won convincingly 4:1. At the champions Bayern Munich, Fortuna scored three equalisers and added to the sporting crisis there with a 3-3 draw. Dodi Lukébakio scored three times in that match, something that only Cristiano Ronaldo and Ebbe Sand had managed against Bayern recently. Just before the winter break, Fortuna extended their points tally from 9 to 18 in the English week by beating SC Freiburg 2-0, autumn champions Borussia Dortmund 2-1 and Hannover, who were in relegation danger, 1-0. During the winter break, the club announced during the training camp in Marbella that Friedhelm Funkel's expiring contract would not be extended beyond the summer. A large public outpouring of solidarity with Funkel followed, which finally prompted the club to extend beyond the summer after talking to Funkel again. Before the second-round match against Bayern Munich, the club gave the chairman of the board, Robert Schäfer, his leave of absence. The former managing director of VfL Wolfsburg Thomas Röttgermann succeeded him. The team built on their performances in the second half of the season, collecting 26 points, including home wins against VfB Stuttgart (3-0), Borussia Mönchengladbach (3-1) and Werder Bremen (4-1), as well as three away victories at FC Schalke 04 (4-0) and 2-1 each at FC Augsburg and Hertha BSC. Fortuna finished the season in 10th place; the club's best Bundesliga finish in 30 years.

After the season, Dodi Lukébakio and Benito Raman, the two top scorers, left Fortuna. Despite a good start to the 2019/20 season with the first win in Bremen (3:1) since 1977, the team increasingly lost visual contact with the midfield. By the winter break, they had only managed four wins in the league, including at home against Rhineland rivals 1. FC Köln (2-0). With the sporting situation getting bogged down, Friedhelm Funkel was sacked at the end of January 2020, when the team was in last place in the table after nine games with just one win. New coach Uwe Rösler was able to stabilize the team's performance, so that they spent almost the entire second half of the season in the relegation spot above the direct relegation places. In the DFB Cup, the team reached the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by regional league team 1. FC Saarbrücken on penalties. On the last matchday, however, the team fell from the relegation spot to 17th place against promoted Union Berlin. Thus, the direct relegation on the last matchday was repeated exactly as in the final of the 2012/13 season.

After relegation, Fortuna played in the 2020/21 season with a notable competition for the direct re-promotion proclaimed by the club as the season goal. After a bumpy start to the season, a strong phase at the end of the first half of the season with 23 points from 10 games brought the team close to the promotion places. With Klaus Allofs, a club legend returned to the club in September 2020 after more than 20 years in a position of sporting responsibility. In the DFB Cup, the team failed to reach a regional league team, as in the previous year, when they lost 3-2 to Rot-Weiss Essen in the 2nd round. After starting the second half of the season with only 12 points from 10 games, the team lost touch with the top of the table. In particular, Fortuna failed to pick up a single win against any of the teams placed ahead of them at the end of the season and finished the season in 5th place. After missing out on promotion, the club announced that it did not want to continue working with coach Uwe Rösler. On 27 May, a new coach was hired in the form of Christian Preußer - who achieved promotion to the 3rd division with SC Freiburg II - and was officially introduced on 18 June.

Squad 2021/22

• Status: 21 June 2021

Squad changes in the 2020/21 season

• Status: February 2, 2021

Squad changes in the 2021/22 season

• Status: 22 June 2021

coaching staff

Former players

Fortuna Düsseldorf fielded a total of 25 German senior players during its history, including Klaus Allofs, Manfred Bockenfeld, Rudi Bommer, Kurt Borkenhagen, Jupp Derwall, Paul Janes, Toni Turek and Gerd Zewe. However, the downward trend in sport from the mid-1980s onwards meant that the team has since not had any players who have been part of the German national team squad. However, in the period that followed, Düsseldorf did occasionally feature national team players from other countries, such as Anthony Baffoe (Ghana) and Igor Dobrowolski (Russia).

The record player is Gerd Zewe, who played 528 competitive games for the club between 1972 and 1987. Egon Köhnen (455), Josef Weikl (391) and Heiner Baltes (353) played more than 350 competitive games. Peter Meyer scored the most goals in competitive matches (138 goals), ahead of Reiner Geye (135) and Hans Müller (123).

Honorary captain

• Hans Meck (1918-1931)
• Gerd Zewe (1972-1987)

Fortuna legends

In spring 2009, the club held an online vote for the best club players of all time. The eleven winners and the coach were then immortalized on a T-shirt. The following players were chosen:

Toni Turek - Gerd Zewe, Paul Janes, Gerd Zimmermann - Rudi Bommer, Egon Köhnen, Josef Weikl, Andreas Lambertz - Klaus Allofs, Wolfgang Seel, Thomas Allofs - Coach: Aleksandar Ristić

On 4 July 2014, a memorial was erected in front of the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf for the 1954 football world champion Toni Turek. Björn Borgerding had founded the Toni Turek Initiative two years earlier. This initiative took care of the location, the design and the financing of the memorial. The monument was then unveiled on the 60th anniversary of the "Miracle of Bern". The Toni Turek Initiative was supported by the umbrella organisations Supporters Club Düsseldorf 2003 e. V. and AK Arbeitskreis Fanarbeit.

Trainer history

Manager in the sports sector

• Wolf Werner, April 2007 to February 2014
• Helmut Schulte, January 2014 to May 2015 (leave of absence)
• Rachid Azzouzi, June 2015 to May 2016 (early termination of contract)
• Erich Rutemöller, June 2016 to September 2019 (at his own request)
• Lutz Pfannenstiel, December 2018 to May 2020 Chief Sports Officer
• Uwe Klein, Chief Sports Officer since June 2020
• Klaus Allofs, Board Member for Football & Development, Communication and CSR since September 2020