Talking Fussball

We sometimes go on about how tough and unpredictable the 2. Bundesliga is and, well...the two sides relegated from the top flight are proving us right thus far! FC Schalke 04 have just one win from their first three games, and Hertha BSC are rock bottom - no points, no goals, no clue. Nik and Jasmine welcome Maik back to the fold to talk through the goings on in the second tier, as well as a string of stories from the Regionalligen.

The Bundesliga is back, and so is Talking Fussball's coverage of the top flight of German football - for a 12th season running! After all this time, we've just about seen it all, but there are a few new wrinkles. First, while English Premier League clubs continued to buy up the Bundesliga's best, one also saw fit to sell an established star in Harry Kane - how will he fit at FC Bayern and Germany? Second, this season is the first since 1965-66 that the German capital is only represented by one club that is not Hertha BSC - are 1. FC Union Berlin ready for their maiden UEFA Champions League challenge? Join Matt Hermann, Nik Wildhagen and Terry Duffelen for all this and much more.

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The 2. Bundesliga is up and running, which means Nik Wildhagen and Jasmine Baba are ready to talk some Fussball! They run you though the key transfers into the league, a string of youngsters to watch as the season unfolds, and their all-important (and perhaps controversial) picks for promotion and relegation come May 2024. Strap in!

Germany's relegation playoffs may not involve teams that play champagne football, but the storylines they offer up are plenty tantalizing. After another loss (this time to Stuttgart), what can the increasingly desperate HSV do to get back to the top flight? Are Bielefeld doomed after sealing their second straight drop with a loss to Wiesbaden? And what should we look forward to in next year's second and third tiers now that we know who's playing in them? Nik, Jasmin and Maik get into it...

He's a football legend, a tabloid mainstay, a prodigious teller of tall tales and a symbol of postwar Germany itself. Franz Beckenbauer is the biggest name to ever emerge from the Bundesliga, and it's appropriate that Uli Hesse, the man who wrote the book on the league (Tor! - if you haven't read it, drop everything and start) should take on the task of writing a new biography of him. It's called The Three Lives of the Kaiser, and the author is on the pod this week to talk with Nik Wildhagen about it...

Wild times on the final weekend in the 2. Bundesliga (oh my Heidenheim!) and the 3. Liga too, where Wiesbaden's promotion party was abruptly cut short by Osnabrück. Join Nik, Jasmine and Maik for a re-cap of all the drama and a preview of what's to come in the two big relegation playoffs: Hamburg vs Stuttgart and Wiesbaden vs. Bielefeld.

We now know SV Darmstadt 98 are headed back to the Bundesliga next season, but there's still plenty to play for for the likes of promotion hopefuls Hamburger Sport-Verein and FC Heidenheim as well as the relegation-threatened Eintracht Braunschweig, 1. FC Nürnberg and Arminia Bielefeld. Nik talks through all the permutations with Maik and Jasmine, as well as take a trip down to the 3. Liga.

When the last Aufstieg edition came out, Hamburger Sport-Verein were riding high off a derby win over FC St. Pauli and edging toward the automatic promotion places. Not so much anymore - their two losses on the trot, as well as a timely defeat for league leaders SV Darmstadt, mean there's still much to play for as the league heads into the final three rounds. Nik, Maik and Jasmine are here to chew the fat over all the action, as well as let you knwo what storues are bubbling under from the lower divisions.

Here in 2023, football leagues selling a stake to a strategic partner is nothing new...but it sure would be for Germany's top flight. The DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) has been looking for a private equity firm who might help them bankroll a few projects - everything from media rights sales to international marketing - but not everyone is on board. Could it all blow up in the Bundesliga's face? Nik and Terry let you know what's at stake and who's on what side of the issue...

The Bundesliga title race is still tight after another stumble by the team who entered the match day in the lead. As you'll hear in this edition, Matt and Adam Khan are pretty sure a few refereeing clangers played a part in BVB's slip, but the question remains: does anybody want to win the league? Plenty on the rest of the match day too, including what finally halted Mainz's charge, which teams at the bottom seem to be in driver's seat to stick around next year and more...