Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim is a German village of barely three thousand. It is also the seat of a soccer team, supported by entrepreneur Dietmar Hopp, who made a fortune in software and goes by the motto: "One man, one village, one plan." And that plan can be called ambitious to say the least. In early 2007, he inspected a miserable field where a stadium would be built to house 10 times the entire village population. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim was to become the showpiece of the entire Baden region. The fact that the team has more capital than tradition is no problem in the eyes of Hopp, who once played the game himself. Frank Pfeiffer follows Hoffenheim for a year-and-a-half in fly-on-the-wall style: from the arrogant team president, who sums up the formula for the new stadium in the slogan "wurst, beer and goals," to supporters young and old. With a team full of new acquisitions from all over the place, the pride of the region manages to reach the Federal League by means of a double promotion. While the marketing people work hard to market the Hoffenheim product, a simple supporter wonders what the price of success is. He believes that love for the team isn't for sale, but when the new stadium is inaugurated, he can't help but look on in awe.