The streets of Mainz were painted red and white in the summer of 2036 as fans of 1. FSV Mainz 05 launched the biggest party in the city’s history, celebrating their heroes winning their first major trophy. Roberto Lazaró, club legend Brajan Gruda and captain José Bertazzi led an open-top bus tour and spilled in and out of the Mainz beer houses parading the Europa Conference League trophy and posing for photos with thousands of jubilant fans.
These celebrations also served as a farewell to Gruda, who waved goodbye to fans having won and converted the winning penalty with his final kick as a Mainz player. The attacking midfielder ended his 15-year spell at Mainz as he went to earn big money on a free transfer to Saudi. He was joined through the exit door as Mainz saw another big sale, with converted full back Guilherme Henrique moving to Nottingham Forest for his minimum fee release of £53m. Lazaró moved on players he didn’t feel were progressing, selling midfielder Leanderson Moutinho to Hertha for £8m, midfielder Minervino Zurzica, who never played a game for the club, to Dortmund for £7m, centre back De Nilson Barbosa to Vallecano for £6.75m and left back Agustín to Napoli for £5.5m.
That gave Lazaró a bumper £300m transfer kitty, which he couldn’t dream of spending. He did bring in midfielder Jan Buhrenhaus for £1.5m from Bayern and Uruguayan goalkeeper Roberto Palacios for £2m from Nacional, but his focus was more on developing the young talents he already had. So he promoted promising talents like attackers Bernard Rouxel and Okan Ozdemir and defenders Marlon Endress, Hafedh Haddad, Rafael Musel and, in January, Jesse Berndroth.
Lazaró stuck with the narrow 4-3-3 approach but decided to give Hong Kong/Swiss striker Wong Tsz Hin the nod up front. That sees Hernán Acosta, who’s brilliant but not prolific, drop into midfield with worryingly injury-afflicted wonderkid duo Santiago Quiroga and Damián Jorge in behind Hin, with attacking support from Rouxel, Nemanja Ratkovic and academy product Angelo Tursi and Ozdemir.
Season 4 In Bundesliga
The bookies still don’t fancy Mainz’s chances, dropping them down the league to a predicted 14th place but halving their title odds to 400/1. Leipzig and Bayern, who haven’t won Bundesliga for 3 seasons, are 9/4 joint favourites followed by holders Dortmund (4/1), Leverkusen (5/1) and Wolfsburg (25/1).
Hin’s powerful strike earned a 1-1 at Hertha, Acosta’s brace and Tursi’s late strike earned an impressive 3-1 win over Gladbach, before getting demolished 4-1 at Leverkusen. They also got thumped 6-2 at Leipzig and 3-0 at Dortmund a few days later, leaving Mainz down in 12th in mid-October. But Quiroga and Hin earned a 2-0 win at home to Union Berlin, midfielder Stiven Navarro scored a late equaliser before crossing the winner for centre back Roberto Carlos Castaneda at Stuttgart, and Hin’s brace led a 3-1 win over Koln to get their season rolling. Mainz kicked on from there, including Hin and a Quiroga penalty securing a 2-1 win at home to Bayern, who we were struggling again down in 8th. Mainz went into the winter break in a solid 7th place, only 6 points off leaders Gladbach in what was shaping up to be an exciting title race with the top 10 split by just 9 points.
Stepping Up To Europa League
Mainz’s Conference League victory took them straight into the Europa League league phase, in which they got an interesting mix of matches. They opened up with a 3-0 win at Anderlecht with goals by Bertazzi, Rouxel’s first for the club and Hin, before heavily rotated sides earned narrow 1-0 home wins over Derry City and SK Rapid. The new-found defensive strength continued with a 0-0 at home to Lazio before losing 2-0 at Celta but nicking a 2-1 win at Rennes. And qualification was confirmed by thrashing Partizan 4-1 before losing to Braga to finish 8th, above Liverpool.
Mainz got a decent last 16 round against Dnipro-1, who became the first Ukrainian champions outside of Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar last season. Jorge and Tursi earned a 2-0 victory in Ukraine before easing to a 3-1 home win. A tougher draw followed against Monaco but Hin earned a 1-1 in France and Tursi’s late strike edged a narrow 2-1 win at home.
That sent Mainz into a second European semi final in 12 months, this time against Lazio, while Atalanta took on Rennes. Acosta’s great strike from the edge of the box gave Mainz the lead after 38 minutes at Stadio Olimpico, but Gutiérrrez’s unlucky own goal gave Lazio a draw. Mainz again ook the lead at home in spectacular fashion as a corner bouned out to Hin on the edge of the box and he rocketed a half volley into the top corner. They seized control as Jorge ran through three players and calmly doubled the lead just before halftime, and that was enough to win a poor game of very little quality. So Mainz reached consecutive European Finals!
Tight Bundesliga Title Race
Lazaró made more moves in January, led by the exciting signings of midfielders Lucas Bottega and Mickael Labrousse for £13.5m and £16.75m from Fluminense and Club Brugge, defender Lasse Lykkeberg for £8m from Kobenhavn and striker Jesper Josefsson for £1.8m from Norrkoping.
Mainz began 2037 with a great result, thrashing Hannover 4-1 led by a Quiroga assist hat trick and goals by Navarro, Acosta, Hin and Bertazzi. An exciting day for the club saw academy products Tursi and Ozdemir’s brace secure a 3-0 win over Hertha, with all 3 assisted by Bottega. Two big games saw Mainz entertain leaders Leverkusen and 6th-place Dortmund and hold both to 0-0s. Ratkovic’s late strike then beat struggling Leipzig 1-0, which left Mainz just 7 points off top place, which was occupied by fellow surprise package Hamburg, at the end of February. The form slipped a little, but they stayed on the edges of the title race with their focus on European competition, sitting 6 points behind leaders Dortmund with 5 games remaining. While the top three were separated by just 4 points.
Ratkovic kept Mainz in the mix with a brace to down Hoffenheim 2-0, while the top 2 also both won, but Lazaró had to rotate for the trip to Bayern and they lost 3-1. That dropped them out of any title hopes, but they also finished the season poorly to drop back down the table into 6th. Mainz finished on 58 points (5 more than last season) after 16 wins, 10 draws and 8 defeats, scoring 54 (6 more than last season) and conceding 44. At the top of the league, the big news was Hamburg overcoming Dortmund on the final day of the season to win their first German title for 54 years! While Bayern finished 8th in their worst season since coming 10th in 1992.
Europa League Final
Fans from Germany and Italy descended upon Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in Sevilla to watch Mainz face Atalanta, who overturned a 3-0 deficit to beat Rennes 6-5 on aggregate. Mainz were looking for unprecedented back-to-back Conference League and Europa League victories by winning their second major trophy, while Atalanta were seeking a second Europa League, having won it in 2024. Lazaró lost Acosta to a double hernia injury so replaced him with Salvador Martínez, and lined up:
Cerantola; Marcelo, Adler, Castaneda, Laerte; Gutiérrez, Navarro; Martínez; Jorge, Quiroga; Hin
Subs: Ozdemir, Schroder, Endress, Bottega, Tursi, Ratkovic, Lykkeberg, Musel
The two sides played out a very cagey first half until Atalanta scored from a corner. Lazaró laid into the side and got the desired result nine minutes after the break as neat play by Quiroga teed up Jorge to beat two men and slam into the top corner from the edge of the box. Atalanta had the best of the game but couldn’t find a way past Santino Cerantola. He took it to extra time but the Italians eventually found a way through with a good goal on 99 minutes. Lazaró threw everything at it and Mainz went close late on, with Ratkovic forcing a good save and Ozdemir hitting the bar. But Atalanta held on to win the Europa League.
Mainz Homegrown Players Update
Lazaró was very proud of the progress his young players were making, pushing the big boys close in Bundesliga and going close to a second European trophy. However, they were still lacking the regular goalscorer that Lazaró felt would take the team to the next level. Hin led the way with 14 in 34 followed Quiroga (9), Ratkovic and Acosta (8), Ozdemir and Jorge (7) and Tursi and Navarro (5). Quiroga and Navarro both got 10 assists followed by Jorge (6) and Bottega, Ratkovic, Tursi and Martínez (5).
Mainz now had 17 players homegrown at the club, with several more to come at the end of June. They played a combined 274 league games with 22 goals and 132 cup games with 11 goals. Check out all the stats by clicking the chart below:
The U19s had a slightly poorer season, finishing 7th in their league but making the last 16 in the UEFA Youth League. Justin Thielmann was the star with 13 goals and 12 assists. Striker Bernard Rouxel performed well for Mainz II, scoring 16 in 24, along with fellow attacker Sandro’s 11 goals and 8 assists. See all their stats by clicking the chart below:
Hin came 2nd in NxGn 2037 but was the only Mainz youngster to make the list. But there was more potential coming in as, despite being promised a youth intake with 5 As, Mainz got a solid new batch of youngsters led by two 5-star talents in full back Prince Myrie and goalkeeper Thomas Thonhofer. Other players worth looking out for are winger Christopher Rech, midfielder Richard Schweizer, left back Tim Meissner and centre back Nick Dieterle.
There were clear signs of improvement at Mainz, finishing 6th for the second season in a row and reaching another European Final. But Lazaró was keen for some of his better players to kick on a level to help them compete with Germany’s best. Join us next time to see if they could in 2037/38.
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