Season 2019-35 will be remembered in and around Lokomotive Bryggen for a very long time. Bryggen debuted in the German Division 2 with the overshadowing goal of staying clear of relegation. We optimistically predicted a 10th place finish. Oh boy, were we wrong! Throughout the season, Bryggen played some very good football against some very strong teams and at the halfway mark, relegation wasn’t really an issue anymore. In the second part of the season, Bryggen kept surprising game after game and when the smoke cleared, Bryggen found themselves in 2nd place! In one of the biggest upsets in German football history, promotion to the Bundesliga was a reality! German Head Coach Sepp Piontek is obviously walking on sunshine: “Ach Mein Gott, I don’t know what to say. This is the biggest moment of my coahing career. The guys just kept improving to levels we didn’t think were possible. Yes, we had our share of good luck along the way, but dass ist nicht gegen das Gesetz. I am so proud”. Bryggen actually re-wrote history twice this season: They were also able to get into the quarterfinals of the DFB-Pokal. The club has never progressed that far in any cup before.

The promotion is even more impressive when you consider that Bryggen sold their two most experienced players in the beginning of the season. The Brazilian “twins” Aurelio Miguel and Calisto Anaruma (they are not really twins, but they are born on the same day) were replaced with younger forces: Australian midfielder Sean Hearne (4.15M) and right attacker Alfred Bramskov from Denmark (3.9M) joined the club and played a big part in the promotion. They now get to play top tier football next season! The Brazilian twins has 790 games for Bryggen between them so a lot of experience has left the club, but judging by the recent developments, Bryggen will be able to cope without them.

Of course, the excellent results on the pitch has a big impact on the financial statement of 2019-35. Prize money was 824K (over 500K more than the previous record), ticket sales was 2.6M (nearly 500K on top of what used to be the record) and various achievement money netted 3.25M. In a quick reaction to the promotion, club owner Ai-Pwn Yu chose to expand Bryggen Arena: “Unquestionably we want to give as many people in the Bryggen area the opportunity to see some of the best teams and players in the world. We were afraid that Bryggen Arena’s 20K seats weren’t going to accomplish that. We therefore spent 18M on an additional 11.8K seats and although it was a very quick decision, we are quite happy with the result”. As a consequence of the stadium expansion, Bryggen came out of 2019-35 with a negative result of 5.4M.

The big question now surely is how Bryggen is planning on surviving in the Bundesliga. Are there any money left to purchase new players? Ai-Pwn Yu told us that there is plenty of money, but otherwise referred to Piontek for comments: “Well, we could spend 40-50M on stronger players and probably avoid relegation but we are not going to do that. The club has a long term plan and we are sticking to it. We also think dass die Jungs all deserve to get the experience of playing against the best players in the world. They made the promotion a reality – they should get the benefits. Ja, wir are going to get the Scheisse kicked out of us in the Bundesliga. Every single point we are getting will be a big surprise, but we will return to Division 2 in 2019-37 even stronger. Ich freue mich so crazy much on the next season”

We cannot really wait either. Bryggen will not get many points this season – we just hope they will get more than zero. 30 defeats in a row can certainly have a negative impact on the player’s self confidence, so here’s to hoping Bryggen will be able to get the occasional draw and maybe even a win or two!