Who are Jahn Regensburg, the Bavarian side just promoted back to Bundesliga 2?
Jahn Regensburg may not be the biggest team in Bavaria, but the side known as the Jahnelf are making their own waves of late. bundesliga.com puts the side known as the Jahnelf under the spotlight following their return to Bundesliga 2 via the play-off.
History
Originally a gymnastics club based in Regensburg, Bavaria, the subsequent football team that was formed in 1907 took its name from Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, an influential gymnastics instructor of the time.
Later name changes and further amalgamations saw Sportbund Jahn Regensburg become Sportverein 1889 Regensburg and Schwimmverein 1920 (SSV). At the turn of this century, SSV Jahn Regensburg - what the club is now known as - became an independent footballing entity.
Footballing success at Jahn came mainly in the form of admirable finishes in regional Bavarian leagues in and around the 1930s while while they enjoyed several stints in the Oberliga Süd during the 1960s.
Playing as an independent footballing entity, Jahn reached the German second division in the 2000s before financial problems led to the team dropping down the divisions once more. The red Shorts battled back via the Regionalliga Süd to the newly formed 3. Liga.
Watch: Jahn secure return to Bundesliga 2 for 2024/25
A play-off win against Karlsruhe in 2012 saw Jahn make it back into the German second tier, but relegation swiftly followed and the Bavarian side once again began to slide.
As they had done before, however, Regensburg fought their way back into Bundesliga 2. Despite a strong start to the 2022/23 campaign, and after six seasons in 2 Bundesliga, Jahn went down to the third division and the cycle began once again.
Key players
Dominik Kother
A product of the Karlsruhe youth system, Kother made his senior debut for the Baden-Württemberg-based side in the second division back in 2019. After 41 senior appearances for KSC, the 24-year-old was loaned out to Waldhof Mannheim before completing a permanent switch to Jahn at the start of the current campaign.
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Kother has been a revelation with the Red Shorts, the former Germany Under-21 international taking his goal involvements with the club to 20 towards the tail end of Jahn's promotion push. The attacker's 10 goals scored match that of striker Noah Ganaus but Kother is a prime candidate to be the club's Player of the Season with a further 10 assists added to his name in 2023/24.
Christian Viet
Formerly of St. Pauli and Borussia Dortmund's second team, Viet moved to Regensburg ahead of the 2022/23 season. The versatile midfielder was part of the Jahnelf side that suffered relegation to the third tier in his first campaign with the club, when he made 22 second-tier appearances. His contribution to the Red Shorts' promotion tilt this time around cannot be understated.
A consistent performer in attacking midfield, Viet has been almost ever-present for Joe Enochs' outfit, the 25-year-old adding nine goals and six assists to the cause in what has been a significant return from the Buxtehude native.
Felix Gebhardt
Any team hoping to achieve promotion requires a solid defence and Jahn have one of the best in the league. Overseeing a solid backline is ex-Germany youth international goalkeeper Gebhardt, whose commanding presence and maturity between the posts belies his young age of 22.
The custodian was schooled at the youth academy of FC Basel in Switzerland, who he joined in 2015 and where he would later sign professional terms. Several appearances in the UEFA Youth League boosted Gebhardt's profile further.
Prior to signing for Jahn in 2023, the keeper played 36 times for Hallescher FC on loan. Since joining the club, he has kept eight clean sheets and produced a number of player-of-the-match performances.
Elias Huth
More often that not a substitute this season, former Kaiserslautern regular Huth has been showing he's the real deal in the minutes he's been given this season. With 22 of his 34 appearaces coming off the bench, his seven goals put him fourth in Jahn's scoring charts, but when it comes to minutes per-goal, he's in a league of his own at 191 minutes.
His goals have all been important, too, with four of them outright match-winners, earning his team 12 points, and more equalising goals to boot. He most recently earned a point at 1860 Munich, while his eight-minute double off the bench against Ingolstadt in October was a season highlight in a 4-2 victory.
Of his eight professional seasons, only one has been in the Bundesliga 2 with Hannover back in 2016, and since then the 27-year-old has remained in the third division. However, looking at his big game mentality, it's no surprise that Huth is on the brink of a return to the second tier.
Coach: Joe Enochs
Born in California, Enochs spent the first 23 years of his life in the US before becoming an adopted German. Signed by Pauli in 1994, the former midfielder didn't make it in Hamburg, but that was no problem at all as he instead headed to Saxony with Osnabrück where he became a club legend across 376 appearances in 12 years.
In total, Enochs would spend 21 years with Osnabrück as a player and coach, departing for FSV Zwickau in 2018, and then joining Regensburg in May 2023. Arriving with three games to play, and the club all but relegated, this was clearly a move to set up the team for a summer rebuild.
Regensburg saw a gargantuan 18 departures and 19 arrivals during the 2023 transfer window, and it paid off, with the one-time US international leading his side to 10-game winning run from October to November, matching the third division record and topping the table. The end of the season was dogged with inconsistency, but thanks to that astonishing start, Jahn still made it to the play offs.
How the season has panned out
It was expected that a completely new team would need time to gel and the early signs were that would be the case when Regensburg opened their season with a home draw to SpVgg Unterhaching and then were knocked out of the DFB Cup by Magbeburg.
Their first win followed straight after, though, with an 86th minute winner from Konrad Faber against SC Verl collecting the first of many three points. Three draws and a loss followed, but after defeat against Sandhausen on September 9, a magical run kicked off.
Regensburg would match Karlsruher's third division record of 10-straight victories, moving them six points clear at the top of the table, and despite the sequence ending, they still weren't beaten for another five games.
The campaign ended with plenty of inconsistency, but ultimately Regensburg's early season form booked them a top three spot heading into the final day. Defeat at home to Saarbrücken ended their hopes of automatic promotion but Preußen Münster's victory over Unterhaching rendered any Regensburg result fruitless anyway. Reward for their third-place finish in the league was a playoff showdown with Wehen Wiesbaden.
Stadium: Jahnstadion Regensburg
The Jahnstadion Regensburg was opened in 2015, replacing the old Jahnstadion which was the home of the team from 1926. The new stadium, which was opened under the name the CONTINENTAL ARENA, has quickly become one of the jewels of the Bavarian city, hosting numerous public and private events alongside its main show - football.
The 15,210 capacity arena hosted its first competitive match in 2015 on July 16 when Viktoria Aschaffenburg were beaten 3-2 at the start of a seven-game win streak to kick off a promotion season in their fourth tier. Later that season it hosted the German U21 team for a victory over Azerbaijan, and a year on the German womens' team, who beat Austria 4-2.
The arena was temporarily renamed the ARENA REGENSBURG to start 2020, and after a fan vote 78 percent of supporters opted for the name 'Jahnstadion Regensburg' ahead of Jahnstadion Ostbayern, Arena Regensburg and Ostbayernstadion.
Did you know?
The Jahnelf - or Jahn 11 - as they are commonly known are named after Johann Friedrich Ludwig Christoph Jahn who is famed for introducing gymnastics into Germany. Born in the north of the country in 1778, Jahn was a teacher, a journalist and a politician.
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