Off for former first division Wattenscheid 09: The last sole

I remember Carlos Babington. The name was great, but it was not alone. An Argentine national player in the mid-70s in the 2nd Bundesliga at a Ruhrgebietsverein, who had previously spent his years in the Unterklassigkeit - that was much more than unusual, that was a sensation.

Of course, Klaus Steilmann was behind it, the man without whom the SG Wattenscheid 09 was not allowed to move a blade of grass. Steilmann, textile entrepreneur, self-made man, patriarch, one of those personalities that could be called charismatic and exhausting alike. In no Steilmann story may miss the anecdote that the entrepreneur after the incorporation of Wattenscheid to Bochum in 1972 refused to drive a car with Bochum license plate and had therefore registered his private car in Essen rather.

In 1958 Steilmann had founded his company in Wattenscheid, and just as he had brought his company up to the largest textile trade in Europe, he also wanted to bring the club up. To the very top. Carlos Babington should help.

The Cinderella in the Ruhr area

The Argentinian was too big for the second league, he scored almost 50 goals in his four Wattenscheider years, but from the second league he could not lead the SG out. Wattenscheid, that was Ruhr-area brown bread. A Cinderella among the traditional clubs in the area, behind Schalke and BVB anyway, but also Rot-Weiß Essen, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and of course the VfL Bochum made much more. The VfL Bochum was in the Bundesliga unabsteigbar, SG rooted in the 2nd league around. That had to make Steilmann go insane.

Jörg Carstensen DPA

Klaus Steilmann on his old days

And then finally came the big hour: 1990 managed the SG actually, the rise in the first league, Hannes Bongartz was the coach, WDR radio reporter Jochen Hageleith could report on the sidelines in the Lohrheide great things. In midfield, Frank Hartmann and the young Thorsten Fink became heroes, the strikers Uwe Tschiskale and Maurice Banach had made the dream of Klaus Steilmann true with their goals. Now it could start, and it is one of the ironies of the Bundesliga, that the SG had it just in time at the time when it began with the company Steilmanns to go down.

But first everything seemed to be alright. In the first Bundesliga, the SG became proud eleventh, had nothing to do with the relegation battle and beat Bayern 3: 2. What a triumph, after all, Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß in his typical way described the rise of the Wattenscheider as "the worst thing that can happen to the Bundesliga". The VfL Bochum had wrested a 1-1 away, Souleyman Sané was the new star in the Lohrheide, later came the mustachioed Marek Lesniak added, back cleared the Lauterer gang to Hans-Werner Moser and Stefan Emmerling from everything that was possible ,

Stuart Franklin Getty Images

Hannes Bongartz, the promotion coach

For four years, the team stayed in the first league, even then, when Steilmann, who had in the meantime installed his daughter Britta as a manager in the club, could no longer shoot so lush. At some point he had run out of money completely, and then it was over with the glory of SG Wattenscheid. Basically final. Like in a mine cage at the mine, it went downhill, third sole, fourth sole, even to where it is very dark and no daylight left, down to the sixth league.

Proud of his offspring

On Wednesday, the club has pulled the emergency brake and deregistered the first team from the game operation of the Regionalliga West. Nobody was more willing to step in as a sponsor for the SG. In the youth field, it is said to continue, they are so proud of the offspring, the Altintop brothers have learned their craft there, also the future VfL and Hertha professional Yildiray Bastürk.

The journalist Christoph Biermann, who himself came from the area, wrote a touching book about the Ruhr football several years ago. One chapter also deals with Wattenscheid 09, for example. It is titled "Patentschuh ohne Power - Traditionsvereine in decline". Biermann describes the desperate attempts in Wattenscheid, in Herne at Schloss Strünkede or at Schwarz-Weiß Essen am Uhlenkrug, to breathe new life into the dying clubs of his homeland and asks: "But there is a moment when no turning back is possible "Is it simply over someday, and the club will never be overgrown?"

The moment has arrived at Wattenscheid 09 at the latest on this 23. October 2019. 110 years after its founding.