‘It’s surreal’: Arminia Bielefeld’s dream cup run reaches its finale

As the clock ticked down on one of Arminia Bielefeld’s most famous victories, there was a moment when time seemed to stand still. Bayer Leverkusen, the DFB-Pokal holders, were 10 minutes from going out of the competition and, as if finally realising the urgency of the situation, shook themselves awake for one last big chance.

Jeremie Frimpong peeled away on the right and scooped a cross into the box, where Patrik Schick was waiting. He rose highest, headed back across goal and, as the stadium held its breath, watched the ball glance an upright and spin wide. Jonas Kersken, the Arminia goalkeeper, had been one of the heroes of the night, but he knew their fate had been out of his hands. He did the only thing he could do: planted a grateful kiss on the post.

When the final whistle went, the SchücoArena erupted. Michél Kniat, the head coach, was mobbed by his staff, and the celebrations in the dugout were so chaotic that, as those on the bench charged on to the field, Leo Oppermann, the back-up goalkeeper, accidentally tackled his teammate Joel Grodowski and sent him tumbling to the turf in a delirious heap. Flares went off in the stands, fans invaded the pitch, players leaped into each other’s arms or stood in a daze, tears welling in their eyes. “It was just an unforgettable moment where, personally, I think we as the players on the field couldn’t really believe it,” says Maël Corboz, the Arminia captain. “Everything comes together in one moment and you’re like: ‘What the hell did we just do?’”

It was remarkable enough that a third division side had overcome Leverkusen, double winners last season – when they went unbeaten in domestic competition – and Bundesliga runners-up this time. But Arminia had dispatched three top-tier teams to earn their meeting with Xabi Alonso’s side. Having kicked off their cup run in August with a 2-0 win against Hannover, competing a league above in the 2. Bundesliga, Arminia beat Union Berlin, Freiburg and Werder Bremen to reach the semi-finals, each upset more spectacular than the last. “The other games were incredible too,” says Corboz. “Every cup round was one step higher in terms of the emotional situation, the moment where you realise: ‘We just beat a Bundesliga team.’ But the Leverkusen game was a completely different level. I don’t know if we’ll ever feel that again.”

Maximilian Grosser (centre) celebrates scoring the winner against Leverkusen. Photograph: Friso Gentsch/AP

Arminia’s achievement in reaching Saturday’s final against Stuttgart in Berlin seems even more unbelievable given how turbulent the past few years have been. A Bundesliga side as recently as 2022, they went into freefall, enduring a double relegation and ending in a tight spot financially as a result. When Christoph Wortmann, their commercial managing director, arrived at the start of 2023, he found a club at a low ebb. “Everything was difficult and destroyed,” he says. “We had to build up, from day one, everything new.”

The club’s new management had to scramble to raise funds just to secure their licence to compete in the 3. Liga, bringing forward sponsorship money from future seasons while drastically cutting costs. “It was like a startup a little bit,” says Wortmann. “The question from the league was: ‘How will you do this?’ In the end we had no coach, no scouting, nothing.” At one point, Arminia had one first-team player: Fabian Klos, a veteran forward who, over 13 years with the club, had seen them rise from the third division to the first and then tumble all the way back down again.

Kniat arrived in the summer of 2023 and, from there, Arminia began to rebuild their bulldozed squad brick by brick. Behind the scenes, Wortmann and his colleagues tried to revitalise the culture of the club and rally their devastated supporters. “There was no trust in us in the first place so we had to talk to the fans, go to fan club events, call actively the season card holders. I did, the coach did, the players did and, after a few months, the fans said: ‘Yes, OK, these guys, what they said, they are doing it.’ So we got trust back. This was the most important thing.”

Even so, the first season under Kniat was far from smooth sailing. A young and unfamiliar squad took time to find their feet, flirting with a third consecutive relegation before pulling together to finish 14th. That felt like a foundation to build on, but nobody could have predicted their success this season. Arminia were confirmed as third division champions on the final day and, having also reached the final of the Westphalian Cup, they are in with a chance of winning a highly unusual treble. “To reach the [DFB-Pokal] final now, it’s crazy, to be honest, as a third division club,” says Wortmann. “You can’t plan a promotion or a cup final … if all of us do a good job, then you can plan for the club being better than it was the season before. It goes step by step, but now it is like we are on a rocket.”

The Arminia Bielefeld head coach, Michél Kniat, has overseen an impressive turnaround. Photograph: Thomas F Starke/Getty Images

Having seen that rocket almost crash and burn not so long ago, Arminia fans are revelling in the upturn. Even before they beat Bremen in the quarter-finals, the players began to notice the same chant following them everywhere they went: “Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin” (“Berlin, Berlin, we’re going to Berlin”). Before the game against Leverkusen, Arminia’s ultras sent the team a message urging them to write themselves into legend. Throughout the cup run, the atmosphere at the SchücoArena has been electric.

The optimism in the stands has taken hold on the pitch. “Those fans believed before the team even really believed,” says Corboz. “It’s almost like they manifested it … you hear the same song over and over and over again: ‘We’re going to Berlin.’ Then you realise after Leverkusen: ‘We’re really going to Berlin. What the hell is going on here?’”

Hannover were the last side from outside the Bundesliga to win the DFB-Pokal, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1992. Photograph: Ullstein Bild/Getty Images

To make their fans’ wildest dreams a reality, Arminia need to spring one last surprise at the Olympiastadion. The last time a third division side reached the DFB-Pokal final was 2001, when Union Berlin lost 2-0 to Schalke. The last time a team outside the Bundesliga won the cup was 1992, when Hannover, as second-tier overachievers, beat Borussia Mönchengladbach on penalties. Arminia would be the first team from the third tier to lift the trophy but, given what they have achieved this season, they are well placed to do the unthinkable.

Corboz and his teammates have already done something unprecedented: while Stuttgart have been to six finals, winning three, this is the first in Arminia’s 120-year history. About 50,000 fans are expected to travel to Berlin, with and without tickets, hoping for a miracle. As for the players, they may have to pinch themselves at kick-off. “I can’t even imagine holding the trophy,” Corboz says with a laugh. “It seems really too surreal.”