VfL Wolfsburg stared at the prospect of relegation from the Bundesliga on the final matchday of 2005-06, wilting to defeat and surrendering the collection of points to FC Kaiserslautern, also embittered in the scuffle for survival, was the conclusion none dared to envisage. Commemorating at the summit of the German pedestal were Bayern Munich, the recurrent frontrunner of many domestic marathons, justifiably elated in the second successive season of consuming the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal.
For an ostensibly inferior product of a professional football club to cross pathways with the double-winning tactician of Bayern Munich is a combination few would have contemplated, but the birth of a magnificent tale was underway as Wolfsburg discarded their shackles to leapfrog the national giants to the top podium step. Here is a story of gratifying revenge, undertaking a titanic-sized challenge and realising hope and dreams.
Fate dealt Wolfsburg a tremendously benevolent hand to aid their cause in the final matchday of 2005-06, an impasse reached in the Kaiserslautern encounter summoned their relegation rivals to the Second Bundesliga in their absence. A following season of toil was waiting and when relegation was avoided on the last day once again, Wolfsburg parted company with coach Klaus Augenthale. Drafted in to occupy the managerial post was Felix Magath, recently dismissed by Bayern Munich over fears that qualification to the Champions League would be elusive. The downbeat emotions associated with the epic strains of relegation had been exiled, a fresh beginning lay in wake with an established champion at the helm.
Bankrolled to the tune of €60m over the two summers and winters ahead, Wolfsburg stormed to the Bundesliga by finishing two points ahead of Bayern. Their success could be pinpointed at the lavish resources available at their disposal but it takes more than a blank chequebook to guarantee the arrival of silverware. Bayern Munich, the uncontested linchpin of German club football with twenty illustrious championships to their credit, had to be toppled as the threats posed by several other clubs were also competently extinguished, while the gulf in class which has been bridged from suffering the despair of near-demotion to gliding to the grand stature as the table-topping conquerors is extraordinary. It offers a symbol of encouragement to any club that the gap to the finest can be overhauled and, even with initial taunts and mocking, the apparent impossible can be made feasible with the basic ingredients of hunger, desire and a small fortune.
VfL Wolfsburg provided a breakthrough in Bundesliga history not solely by winning their first ever league title, but also in providing the first team to have two strikers who have scored 20 goals or more in one season [Grafite and Edin Dzeko] and ten consecutive victories equalled the longest winning streak of any top-flight German club in one season. Bayern Munich, as wounded and stung as they will be, even have to concede that the best man, on this occasion, rightfully won the battle.
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