SpVgg Greuther Fürth

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SpVgg Greuther Fürth is a German football club based in Fürth, Bavaria. The current club was formed only very recently out of the 1996 merger of SpVgg Fürth, founded in 1903, and TSV Vestenbergsgreuth, founded much later, in 1974.

SpVgg is an abbreviation for "Spielvereinigung" (literally translated "Playing association"), an older (and nowadays rarely used) German term for a "Verein" or Club engaged in games, rather than gymnastics. It is never pronounced as abbreviation, but as "Spielvereinigung".

Contents

1 History
2 Current Squad

2.1 Famous players
2.2 Famous Coaches

3 Team trivia
4 External links

History

Fürth won their first national title in 1914, under the English coach William Townley. On May 31 the club faced VfB Leipzig – the defending champions with three titles to their credit – in the final which took place in Magdeburg. A 154-minute-long thriller ended with Fürth scoring a golden goal and securing the title. The team had a solid run of success through the 20's and into the early 30s, playing in the final against Nürnberg in 1920 and advancing to the semi-finals in 1923 and 1931. They claimed two more championships – in 1926 and 1929 – with both of those victories coming over rival Hertha BSC Berlin. In the lead up to World War II Fürth was a solid, but unremarkable side. After the war they slipped to second division play for the first time and, hobbled by on-going financial problems, did not claim any further significant honours.

At the time of the formation of the Bundesliga, in 1963, Fürth found themselves playing third division football. Between 1974 and 1983, the club played in the 2.Bundesliga with their best performance a fourth place finish in 1978-79. They slipped to playing in tier III, with a short three year spell in the fourth division in the late 80s. In 1990, Fürth celebrated a 3:1 victory in the opening round of German Cup play over first division side Borussia Dortmund before going out 0:1 to 1. FC Saarbrücken in the second round.

Historical logos of SpVgg Fürth and TSV Vestenbergsgreuth

Meanwhile, the small village team of TSV Vestenbergsgreuth made its appearance as a fourth division side. They made their move up into the Amateur Oberliga Bayern (III) in 1987-88, just as Fürth was making its way down to play in the division the more junior club had just escaped. Their best performance came in the 1995 German Cup when they upset Bayern Munich (1:0), and then beat FC Homburg before being eliminated in the third round of the competition by VfL Wolfsburg on penalty kicks.

At the time of their merger in 1996, in which TSV's football players came over to Fürth, both clubs were playing at about the same level in Regionalliga Sud (III). The new club was runner up in the division the next year, and so earned promotion to 2.Bundesliga, where they have consistently finished in the top half of the eighteen team table.

Fürth used to share such a bitter rivalry with Nürnberg that their star player in the 1920's was forced to leave after he married a Nürnberg girl, and in national team matches players of the two teams had to sleep in different coaches. In the 2005-06 season, Fürth came close to renewing hostilities with Nürnberg but narrowly missed out on promotion, Cottbus going up instead.

Current Squad

Famous players

Fürth has sent 21 players to the German national team.

Herbert Erhardt, Fürth's most capped player at 49 and a member of West Germany's 1954 World Cup winning Miracle of Bern side.
Karl Mai, also a member of the 1954 World Cup team.

Famous Coaches

William Townley, had three turns as coach of SpVgg Fürth in 1911-1913, 1926-1927, and 1930-1932 and led the club to two championships.

Team trivia

In 1924, for the first and only time, the German national side was made up exclusively of players from just two sides – Fürth and Nürnberg – in spite of the intense rivalry between the two clubs.
The controversial former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was a long time member of the sports club before emigrating to the United States and serving as Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Today he is a honorary member and fan and according to the clubs website [link] (in German) follows the play-results of SpVgg Greuther Fürth closely. A photo of his visit to Playmobil Stadium in Fürth can be seen on the club website here: [link].

External links

German 2. Bundesliga Football Clubs (2006-07)

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