Prologue
What this site is — and why
"AKTE MAINZ" is for lovers and haters of the Nullfünfer alike. History becomes legend, legend becomes myth. And myth becomes cult — or a reason for eternal second-hand embarrassment, depending on the event.
The "grey mouse" that hatched the world's greatest coach. Jürgen Klopp took his first steps as a manager in Mainz — and went on to change the football world. Before Dortmund, before Liverpool, before all the titles: Klopp was a Mainz man. And the club? A carnival club that has become a launchpad for careers. André Schürrle, Thomas Tuchel, and many more started here before conquering the world.
But this site goes beyond mere celebration or hatred. Akte Mainz is structured in three parts: The Club Dossier tells the story — triumphs, tragedies, scandals, heroes and failures across 12 chapters. Match Intelligence delivers the live data a professional needs: squad, statistics, head-to-head, injuries, form. And Predictions brings it all together — with prediction markets.
Prediction markets are not gambling. In traditional sports betting, the masses lose — the money goes to the bookmaker who has built in his margin. Betting exchanges are similar: commissions on winnings, liquidity shortages and spread eat into returns. Prediction markets work fundamentally differently. There is no bookmaker who lets the house win. Instead, money flows from those who don't know to those who get it right — with risk management, portfolio diversification and disciplined capital deployment. You can trade 24/7, build and close positions, and wait for the binary resolution of the event. Those who understand it are not speculating — they're engaged in systematic trading.
Akte Mainz is part of Akte Bundesliga — the same concept for all 18 Bundesliga clubs. Each club gets its own dossier, its own intelligence, its own predictions. The big picture can be found at
Profile
Facts, figures and milestones
Steckbrief – Facts, figures and milestones
1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e.V (1. FSV Mainz 05 for short) was founded in 1905. The club had 18,200 members as of January 1, 2020. The club's senior team first played in the 2. Bundesliga from 1988 to 1990 and then continuously from the 2000/01 season. After promotion to the Bundesliga in 2004 and relegation in 2007, the Rheinhessen side have been continuously in the top flight since 2009/10. Mainz 05 can look back on a total of ten Bundesliga seasons as of December 2019.
The Rheinhessen side were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2004 and stayed until 2007. After a brief return to the second division, they came back up in 2009 and have remained in the top flight ever since. Mainz 05 play in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital and compete in Germany's top league as the only club from that federal state.
Mainz 05 have played their home matches at the Opel Arena, originally the Coface Arena, since 2011. The stadium is located slightly outside the city centre and holds 34,000 spectators. It replaced the club's long-standing home ground, the Bruchwegstadion.
Until the arena's completion on July 3, 2011, Mainz 05 played at the Bruchwegstadion. This was not approved for international matches, which is why Mainz had to host their Europa League home matches against Gaz Metan Mediaş in the 2011/12 season at Frankfurt's Commerzbank-Arena.
Good to Know
What few people know
That 1. FSV Mainz 05 is in many respects a "somewhat different" Bundesliga club is well known. Less well known is that long-serving president Harald Strutz was one of the first Bundesliga officials to embrace an environmental concept.
As early as the 2004 Bruchwegstadion renovation, he installed a photovoltaic system on a stand roof. Ecological aspects are a cornerstone of the Mainz 05 brand to this day. Even the new arena was developed with a sustainability concept.
That the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital is a carnival stronghold is common knowledge and is reflected at Mainz 05 too. The club is often labelled a "carnival club" — sometimes mockingly, sometimes affectionately. The carnival connection runs deep: the club's anthem is played at every home match, and the Fastnacht traditions are woven into the DNA of the club.
Jürgen Klopp started his coaching career at Mainz 05. That is common knowledge. But who actually discovered Klopp? That is less well known. It was Christian Heidel, Mainz's long-serving general manager and the man who built the club's infrastructure. Heidel spotted something in the gangly striker who had scored 52 goals in 325 second-division matches for Mainz.
For the Haters
Embarrassing disasters and major defeats
"Europacup ist nicht so Mainz" ("European cup isn't so Mainz"): A 1-6 loss at RSC Anderlecht (2015) is Mainz's worst European defeat. Bitter: Mainz collected nine points in the group stage — enough for first place in any other group, but not in theirs. And when they crashed out of the Conference League in 2021/22 with a 2-4 aggregate against Armenian side FK Pyunik, it was another low point.
Mainz are one goal short! The 4-1 win at Eintracht Braunschweig on matchday 34 of the 2002/03 2. Bundesliga season is something no Mainz fan will ever forget. Mainz missed promotion by a single goal. Eintracht Frankfurt went up instead — with a goal difference just one better.
Champions — yet no promotion! The era of the "carnival club" in professional football nearly started much earlier. In the Amateur-Oberliga Südwest, introduced in 1978, Mainz 05 were crowned champions in the 1981/82 season. But promotion? Denied! They failed in the promotion playoffs, and it would take until 1988 before the 05ers finally reached the 2. Bundesliga.
Bayern record: Minus 53 — that is FSV Mainz 05's goal difference in matches against mighty FC Bayern München (through the end of the first half of the 2019/20 season). Against no other club has Mainz conceded more goals or lost more matches in the Bundesliga.
Heaviest away defeat in a derby: Mainz's worst derby defeat away from home came in the 2. Bundesliga in the 1988/89 season. On matchday 37, they lost 0-5 at Karlsruher SC.
Tough luck: On the final matchday of the 1996/97 season, Mainz travelled to VfL Wolfsburg. It was a winner-takes-all match for the third promotion spot. The problem: Wolfsburg had a point more, and Mainz needed to win. A 1-1 draw sealed it — Mainz stayed in the Regionalliga. The Wolfsburg goal? A disputed penalty. "We were robbed," was the prevailing sentiment among Mainz fans.
19th place: Mainz 05's worst season in professional football came in their debut 1988/89 campaign. Under coach Robert Jung, who promptly led them back to the 2. Liga ("The Jungle Book Season"), they finished rock bottom with just 25 points.
The chronicles of 2006/07: Anyone who dislikes Mainz will enjoy lingering in the 2006/07 season chronicles. The relegation season from the Bundesliga brought…
The worst points tally in the Bundesliga: 34 points meant 16th place, direct relegation and the weakest record for Mainz 05 in the top flight. Yet Mainz won five of their last seven matches — too little, too late.
For the Lovers
Key triumphs and major victories
When Mainz rocked the Bundesliga: 5th place, 58 points, 18 wins and a goal difference of plus 13 at the end of the 2010/11 season — the best Bundesliga campaign in the club's history and a Europa League spot.
Best 2. Bundesliga season: Mainz 05 achieved this in 2001/02. 64 points and a goal difference of plus 28 were enough for 3rd place and promotion — the club's first trip to the Bundesliga.
The legendary win in Dortmund: The 2017/18 season will always be remembered in Mainz for the dramatic survival secured on matchday 33 in Dortmund. Down to ten men, Mainz won 2-1 at Signal Iduna Park to secure safety — an unforgettable away day.
Mainz can do it against Bayern too: 1. FSV Mainz 05 have beaten FC Bayern München four times in their club history. The most famous win came on matchday 14 of the 2016/17 season — a 2-1 victory at the Opel Arena, with goals from Brosinski and De Blasis.
The Eintracht-Schreck: Between Frankfurt and Mainz lie just 42 kilometres. In Rhine-Main derbies, the Rheinhessen side have driven SGE to despair. Mainz's record in Bundesliga meetings with Frankfurt is remarkably good.
The 2015/16 season: Mainz 05's greatest success came not under Jürgen Klopp or Thomas Tuchel, but under coach Martin Schmidt. A remarkable start to the season saw Mainz sit 2nd in the table after 7 matchdays, challenging for the Champions League places before eventually finishing 7th.
Record wins: Mainz's biggest victories almost all date from their decades-long spell in the 2. Bundesliga. The record win in the second division is 7-0 against SpVgg Bayreuth in 1989.
In the Bundesliga: "Null-Fünf loves Fünf-Null": Mainz managed four 5-0 victories — against SC Paderborn (2014), VfB Stuttgart (2016), SC Freiburg (2019) and SV Werder Bremen (2020).
Most Important Persons
The men who shaped the club
The charismatic one: Mainz made Klopp a cult figure! In 1990, the Mainz 05 board signed the Swabian for the upcoming second-division season. He went on to play 325 matches and was by far the club's most importantreits zu Zeiten von Wolfgang Frank als Trainer dessen verlängerter Arm auf dem Spielfeld. Als dem Verein 2001 de…
The controversial one: On paper at least, he is the most successful 05 coach. With modern attacking, high-tempo football, Tuchel directed „diktatorisch” und „launisch” den Verein zum Erfolg. Nach seiner Beförderung vom A-Jugend- zum Cheftrainer 2009 folgen fünf sehr erfolgreiche Jahre für den Bundes…
The youngster: Schürrle is the youngest goalscorer the club has ever had in their first-team squad. He grew up in Mainz, moved to the youth academy in 2006 and quickly became part of the U19s. The striker was a regular in the first-team squad from 2009 to 2011 and went on to…
The old hand: The goalkeeping legend made his breakthrough in professional football at the then second-division club in 1995. At the start of his career, he first displaced his later goalkeeping coach Stephan Kuhnert and in 1999 succeeded outgoing Lars Schmidt as team captain. Wache experienced the three near…
The operator: The son of former Mainz mayor Herbert Heidel served on the board of 1. FSV Mainz 05 as general manager from 1992 to 2016, and by the end of that period was the longest-serving-serving manager of any Bundesliga club. As the bedrock of FSV, Heidel was the man behind the scenes for over two decades…
The long-term president: After 29 years as president of Mainz 05, Harald Strutz stepped down in summer 2017. There was controversy over his remuneration. The supposedly honorary boss received 23.000 Euro „Aufwandsentschädigung“ im Monat. Zu viel, findet die Opposition im Verein. Mittlerweile haben sich de…
Personae Non Gratae
The men fans love to hate
The rival's friend: The former Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate has been a self-confessed fan of the "Red Devils" from 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The former state premier's sympathies with arch-rivals 1. FC Kaiserslautern have always rankled in Mainz. "Unfortunately…
The taciturn one: Communication problems led to the tightest pre-season sacking of a coach in Bundesliga history (as of December 2019). In 2008, the Norwegian succeeded Jürgen Klopp after a failed promotion bid and at the end of the season achieved with Mainz…
The promotion-wrecker: A single goal cost Mainz promotion in 2003. It was scored by Braunschweig striker Jürgen Rische. After a strong season, FSV stood in a promotion spot on May 25, 2003 after a 4-1 win in Braunschweig, seconds before the season's end. Joy and celebration among the …
The president in red trousers: When Johannes Kaluza was elected as Harald Strutz's successor and new boss of Mainz 05 in June 2017, the Mainz ultras cheered. By winter 2017, howeede Euphorie gewichen. Weniger als sechs Monate hat der Neue gebraucht, um sich als „ungeeignet“ für das Amt als…
Tragic
Those who suffered misfortune
Wolfgang Frank — The football visionary: Before the Regionalliga match at Offenbach's Bieberer Berg, a minute's silence is held in honour of the recently deceased ex-Bundesliga player and coach Wolfgang Frank, who died of a brain tumour. Frank coached FSV Mainz from 1995 to 1997 and 1998 to 2000 and Offenbacher Kickers from 2006 to 2007, each time in the second division. "There is no coincidence." Jürgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and many other modern coaches cite Frank as the man who introduced the back four to German football. A visionary who died far too young in 2013, aged just 62.
Dirk Karkuth — The early death: Dirk Karkuth was born on January 9, 1962 in Gelsenkirchen, where he also died on January 14, 2003. Karkuth was active as a footballer at STV Horst-Emscher and 1. FSV Mainz 05 among others. From 1990, he worked as a coach at BSV Stahl Brandenburg and then as manager and sporting director at Rot-Weiss Essen. From 1996 to 1997, he coached Scottish club FC St. Johnstone. He then returned from the island and coached 1. FSV Mainz 05 from 1997 to 1998. Karkuth died at the age of 41.
OMG — Oh My God
You can't be serious
FSV Mainz 05 — Where football careers begin! As players, coaches and managers. Who would know better than Jürgen Norbert Klopp, who won the Champions League with Liverpool on June 1, 2019? "Everything I am, I am because of you," said "Kloppo," who shaped the club as both player and coach like no other, in tears at his farewell in 2008. But Mainz 05 and their legendary manager Christian Heidel have launched many more careers. Thomas Tuchel, André Schürrle, Lewis Holtby, Adam Szalai — all took their first big steps in the Rhineland-Palatinate capital.
A transfer masterclass with colourful presidents: Jürgen Jughard, elected in 1980 with sweeping powers, nearly drove the club to bankruptcy before his mysterious death in 1982. Jughard loved the spectacle. Even in the Oberliga days, he invited every club president in the league to a Fastnacht celebration at his own expense. The German amateur championship victory in June 1982 — he did not live to see it; Jughard died in late May of the same year under circumstances never fully explained.
It's over in 2014: Thomas Tuchel refused to fulfil his contract in May 2014, even though it still had a year to run. Instead, he wanted a sabbatical, just as Pep Guardiola had done. But he wanted to keep living in Mainz. "Voluntarily," as he later said in an interview when he returned to Mainz in 2015 with his new club Borussia Dortmund. The relationship between Mainz and Tuchel cooled noticeably.
Fun Facts
Knowledge for blowhards, braggadocios and connoisseurs
That Mainz 05 is a "carnival club" and, with the exception of the 1982 German amateur championship, has never won a senior title — everyone in Frankfurt knows that too. Less well known are these facts.
The threefold Zidan: Mohamed Zidan could apparently only be happy in Mainz. The Egyptian, German champion with Borussia Dortmund in 2011, fled to the Bundesliga idyll of Mainz on loan from Werder Bremen as early as 2005. He was signed permanently in 2007, and after stints at HSV and BVB was signed a third time in 2012. The fan favourite scored 29 of his 47 Bundesliga goals for Mainz.
Noveski — One like Kaltz and Körbel: Macedonian Nikolce Noveski holds the record for the most Bundesliga appearances for 1. FSV Mainz 05 with 313 matches in Germany's top flight (as of December 2019). Signed from Erzgebirge Aue in 2004, the centre-back shaped the team for 14 years, eventually as captain. He is slightly less proud of his other record: only Manfred Kaltz and Karl-Heinz Körbel managed more own goals (six each) in Bundesliga history.
A fine Mainz tradition: It is tradition in Mainz that the stadium announcer reads out the visiting team's line-up using only first names, giving the away fans the chance to chant the surnames.
The opportunity-creation club: Ex-president Harald Strutz once described his club as a "Chancen-Eröffnungs-Verein" (opportunity-creation club) — and he was absolutely right. Jürgen Klopp and his successor Thomas Tuchel both moved from Mainz 05 to Borussia Dortmund and became two of Germany's most prominent coaches. That both went on to manage Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain respectively from 2015 and 2018 further underlines the club's extraordinary coaching pipeline.
Honorary captain: Dimo Wache was promoted to the Bundesliga with Mainz 05 in 2004. Between 1995 and 2010, Wache made over 400 competitive appearances for the "Null-Fünfer" and was named the club's first-ever honorary captain.
First international: The first professional from 1. FSV Mainz 05 to wear the German national team shirt was not André Schürrle, but Manuel Friedrich. The centre-back made his international debut in 2006 ahead of the home World Cup and earned nine caps in total, seven of them as a Mainz player — making him the club's record international.
The "Bruchweg Boys" and their colleagues generate millions: "Bruchweg Boys" is what the tabloids christened the Mainz team that rocked the league under coach Thomas Tuchel in 2010/11. A top-of-the-table clash between Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund (0-2) — not even the biggest jokers in the Rhineland-Palatinate capital would have expected that! Two players from that team, Hungarian Adam Szalai and Mainz-born Lewis Holtby, later generated significant transfer fees.
Noteworthy: The top 8 transfers brought Mainz nearly 100 million euros in revenue in just seven years. Yet the motto of legendary manager Christian Heidel still applies at Eugen-Salomon-Straße: "Bundesliga in Mainz is nischt selbstverständlisch" (nothing to be taken for granted).
Special Moments
Am Rosenmontag… Lebenswerk eines insolventen Autohändlers
In front of the north stand of the Mainz Bruchwegstadion stands a man in the inner area who immediately catches the eye with his cream-coloured leather blazer and black shirt. The southwest dandy keeps reaching for his phone. He is fuming at referee Hermann Albrecht from Kaufbeuren, who had hardly calmed the Mainz nerves by awarding two penalties in the fifth and seventh minutes of the decisive second-division match against Eintracht Trier.
The restlessly fidgeting figure is Christian Heidel, the honorary manager of 1. FSV Mainz 05. Heidel is experiencing the most important day of his career. Or more accurately: he is suffering through it. His day job is running a car dealership. At a young age, he bought a 20 per cent stake in one. Mainz 05 ("I never saw it as a job") is his life's work, and today is the day it all comes down to.
Further ahead, another man prowls through the coaching zone. It is the man to whom Christian Heidel and all of Mainz owe this memorable constellation. It is Jürgen Norbert Klopp, Mainz's coach since 2001. Klopp keeps pulling his players to the touchline. He gives instructions, he roars, he gesticulates. He wants to get it over the line today. Finally over the line — the promotion to the Bundesliga.
Heidel does not yet trust the overflowing joy in the small, makeshift Bruchweg arena, bolstered with temporary and tubular steel stands, after 23 minutes. The images of weeping Mainz players, fans and officials after the non-promotion dramas of recent years in Wolfsburg, Berlin and Braunschweig are etched too deeply in his consciousness. "We'd been close so many times before that I couldn't allow myself to celebrate until the very end."
It is 3:43 p.m. when the "volcano" Jürgen Klopp erupts. Karlsruher SC are leading 1-0 against Mainz's promotion rivals Alemannia Aachen. "Kloppo" clenches his fist as if shouting to his boys: "Now or never!" Heidel is already struggling to hold back his tears. At 4:23 p.m., Manuel Friedrich — who will go down in history as the first German international from Mainz 05 — scores to seal it. Mainz are up. For the first time. Into the Bundesliga.
In the dressing room, Jürgen Klopp drinks the first of many promotion beers. That he happens to be drinking the brand that will later sign him as an ambassador — he could not possibly have known. He cannot yet grasp the promotion. But he explains it. In precisely the ironic, intelligent manner that made him a cult figure in Mainz, and later as a TV pundit on ZDF and as coach in Dortmund and Liverpool.
Classic Klopp. Like no other, the master motivator knew how to cut through the sometimes brutal football business with sharp humour. Together with Christian Heidel ("In the 2. Liga we were the greyest mouse among grey mice"), he led a club into the Bundesliga that had long been a nobody even in Rhineland-Palatinate. In the shadow of the almost cultishly venerated 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Mainz were overlooked for decades.
From 1989, Christian Heidel tried to bring some professionalism to the club. He ran a car dealership; his father was mayor and head of urban planning in Mainz. In 1992, he joined the Mainz board. "Mainz is home, a life's mission, and this club is somehow my baby too," he told DIE WELT years later. And somehow also a coaching revolving door. Between 1992 and 2001, Heidel went through eight coaches — until he found Klopp.
On February 28, 2001 — Rosenmontag (Carnival Monday) in Mainz, with most fans at the big parade — Mainz 05 parted ways with Eckhard Krautzun, who had gone seven matches without a win and had the team in a relegation spot. Heidel was at home. He had no interest in the ARD broadcast of the Rosenmontag parade with its "Schwollköpp," "Klepper-Garde" and "Scheierborzelern."
He called "Kloppo," who didn't think twice. "Christian Heidel phones, Kloppo, we're sacking Eckhard, blah blah blah, can you imagine doing it?" Klopp later recounted the conversation that would permanently change his life and the history of FSV Mainz 05. He took over Mainz 05 as coach on — of all days — Rosenmontag. "It was a bit spooky when Klopp became coach," recalled Heidel. "But I had a gut feeling."
Klopp himself put it in his own inimitable way: "We were branded as uncoachable, but we were just a team that had a lot of questions." Klopp answered those questions with great meticulousness and tactical understanding, which he had adopted from his mentor, Wolfgang Frank, who died far too early in 2013.
Klopp speaks the players' language. Even as a professional, he was never one for empty phrases. "We've been under pressure for months and you come here and ask me what we dream about — I've never heard such rubbish in my life," he once snapped at an SWR reporter. The young, dynamic coach Klopp — alongside Dortmund's Matthias Sammer one of the youngest Bundesliga coaches at the time — brought a raw, authentic energy that transformed Mainz 05.
Wise Words
Quotes for eternity
"That was all highly crystallised." René Adler
Former Mainz 05 goalkeeper"It was unbelievably beautiful! I only scored that goal for him — he refereed such rubbish, it was unbelievable, what he did, you can't string together that much nonsense in one match, but he managed it, unbelievable!" Michael Thurk as a Mainz 05 player
on being asked why he celebrated his equaliser against Karlsruher SC by running towards the referee"I find it sad that success in football is no longer determined solely by football. We at Mainz 05 have to sell tickets and players to invest — others sell cars and fizzy drinks for that."
Former general manager Christian Heidel"Miro Tanjga always ignored me. I think we played 400 matches together, and he passed to me seven times."
Jürgen Klopp as a Mainz 05 player on Miroslav Tanjga"I need to watch the Champions League now. It's important, because there are potential opponents of ours playing."
Jürgen Klopp as Mainz 05 coach in 2004