SC Freiburg
Our Club profiles continue with this article being about SC Freiburg. This is a club that as a special place in the heart for Toby. The Club currently play in the Bundesliga and at time of writing this sit 8th in the table. The club was founded in 1904 and currently plays it games in the Europa Park Stadion. In this Article we will go through the clubs history as well as who are the key players of the club to watch out for this season.
The club can trace its origins to a pair of clubs founded in 1904: Freiburger Fußballverein 04 was organised in March of that year; FC Schwalbe Freiburg just two months later.
In 1918, after the devastation of World War I, SC Freiburg entered a temporary arrangement with Freiburger FC to be able to field a full side called KSG Freiburg. The next year, SC Freiburg associated themselves with FT 1844 Freiburg as that club's football department, until 1928 when they left to enter into a stadium-sharing arrangement with PSV Freiburg 1924 that lasted until 1930 and the failure of PSV. SC Freiburg then picked up again with FT 1844 Freiburg in 1938. The club played on the highest level from 1928, first in the Bezirksliga Baden, then in the Gauliga Baden, from which they were relegated in 1934.
At the end of World War II, Allied occupation authorities disbanded most existing organizations in Germany, including football and sports clubs. The clubs were permitted to reconstitute themselves after a year, but were required to take on new names in an attempt to disassociate them from the so-recent Nazi past. SC Freiburg was therefore briefly known as VfL Freiburg. By 1950, French-occupation authorities had let up enough to allow the clubs to reclaim their old identities. Finally, in 1952, SC Freiburg left FT Freiburg behind again.
Although only a small club, SC Freiburg became known for the fight and team spirit in their play. This led them to the 2. Bundesliga in 1978–79, which they would compete in for a decade-and-a-half before making the breakthrough to the top-flight Bundesliga in 1993–94 under the management of Volker Finke. In their first Bundesliga season, Freiburg narrowly avoided relegation. They made an exciting run in their second season at the top level, finishing third, just three points behind champions Borussia Dortmund. The club's greatest success was reaching the UEFA Cup in 1995 and 2001.
Freiburg's first Bundesliga relegation was in 1997 after they finished in 17th position. While they have been relegated four times since first making the Bundesliga, they have thrice won immediate promotion back to the top league, only failing to do so in 2005–06. It was the first time since 1992 that Freiburg played in the 2. Bundesliga for two consecutive seasons.
Freiburg finished the 2006–07 season in fourth place in the 2. Bundesliga, missing out on the third automatic-promotion spot on goal difference to MSV Duisburg, although they won 12 of their last 16 league games. They were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal in the second round by VfL Wolfsburg on 24 October 2006.On 20 May 2007, Volker Finke resigned as the club's coach after 16 years in the job. He was succeeded by Robin Dutt, who himself left the club for Bayer Leverkusen in 2011. On 10 May 2009, Freiburg secured promotion into the Bundesliga once again, beating TuS Koblenz in an away game 5–2.
In the 2011–12 season, Freiburg appeared to be unable to avoid another relegation for the most part of the season but a coaching change by appointing Christian Streich turned the sides fortunes around and the club eventually finished 12th and survived. Under Christian Streich, the 2012–13 Bundesliga season saw the club finish in fifth place, their best league standing since 1994–95. The fifth-place finish secured a position in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, an accomplishment that the club had not achieved since the 2001–02 edition of the tournament. During the 2012–13 season, Freiburg also advanced to the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal for the first time in the club's history but lost to local rivals VfB Stuttgart 1–2 and missed the chance to play Bayern Munich in the final.
In the 2014–15 season, after six years in the top flight, Freiburg was relegated to the 2. Bundesliga by a single point after a final-day defeat at Hannover 96. This was despite beating Bayern Munich in the second-last game. In the following season, however, the club earned its fifth promotion to the Bundesliga as league champions, with two matches to spare. The first season back in the Bundesliga saw them end seventh. This saw Freiburg qualify for the Europa League, as German cup winners Borussia Dortmund were already qualified for the Champions League. In the 2021–22 season, Freiburg finished sixth in the league to qualify to the next season's Europa League, where they managed to reach the round of 16. In the following season, they finished fifth in the league to achieve another direct qualification to the Europa League group stage, despite being in the Champions League spots most of the season; however, two consecutive losses against rivals RB Leipzig and Union Berlin had them drop down in the league table with two games remaining. In the DFB-Pokal of the same season, they managed to defeat Bayern Munich 2–1 in the quarter-finals, in an away match for the first time in their history, before losing in the semi-finals at home 1–5 to RB Leipzig.
Players in the current squad to look out for are Ginter and Vincezo Grifo. As both players show Frieburg like to resign player who they have signed before.
Ginter Started his career at Freiburg but in 2014 he joined Borussia Dortmund and then Borussia Monchengladbach. In 2022 he rejoins Freiburg on a free transfer and during that he has become a important figure at the back of Freiburg. So is a player to watch out for on the pitch.
Grifio is not a player that start his career at Freiburg, but he played for them back in 2015-17 and then rejoined the club in 2019 which he has now become there vice-captain of the squad. He has made over 143 appearances for the club since scoring 41 goal and is a player which leads the line in scoring for Friburg,