The exciting youngsters of 1. FSV Mainz came minutes away from consecutive European titles and edged close to the Bundesliga title race in Roberto Lazaró’s fifth season at the club. The next step, in their manager’s mind, was to become more competitive against Germany’s big boys as they headed into their final season at the council-owned MEWA Arena.
The summer of 2037 saw £23m of sales led by goalkeeper Daniel Schroder, who lost his position as number one to Santino Cerantola after conceding 2 goals per game last season, to Dortmund for £14m. But Lazaró saw no need to bring in reinforcements as he looked to further blood his existing talents, promoting the likes of 6ft 4in striker Jesper Josefsson and Mexican goalkeeper Fernando Valencia.
Lazaró also decided to tweak the formation, pushing the central midfielder higher to have three players in behind the striker. And, for the third time in three seasons, his bid to find a regular goalscorer saw him change his lead striker to Damián Jorge, with Salvador Martínez and Lucas Bottega stepping up as first-choice options.
Mainz Make A Strong Bundesliga Start
The bookies finally increased their expectations of Mainz, predicting an 8th-place finish with title odds of 100/1. Dortmund are 15/8 favourites followed by Leipzig and Bayern (7/2, despite the latter finishing 8th last season), Leverkusen (9/2) and Wolfsburg (25/1). While holders Hamburg are predicted 10th with 200/1 odds to defend the title.
The decision to move Jorge up top started well as he scored both in a 2-0 win at home to Stuttgart and scored again either side of a brace by attacking midfielder Nemanja Ratkovic. Then he obviously got injured! But the team continued the strong start without him, with the tweaked tactic working an absolute treat as Mainz went unbeaten through the first 11 league games, including attacking midfielder Santiago Quiroga edging a 1-0 win at home to Leipzig. That teed up a big game at home to 2nd-place Dortmund in mid-November, in which Martínez drilled home a penalty after Quiroga was fouled but the visitors grew into it and nicked a point. The unbeaten start ended with their customary defeat at Bayern, where Mainz have still never won in this entire save, but went into the winter break with a 6-point lead over Dortmund
Rotated Sides Perform Well In Europa League
Mainz were back in the Europa League for a second season and Lazaró decided to use his squad for a relatively favorable set of fixtures. Josefsson scored his first goal for the club as they opened up with a 2-0 win over Legia before academy product midfielder Justin Thielmann scored twice in a 3-3 at Besiktas. Attacker Wong Tsz Hin bagged a brace as they thrashed Fenerbahce 4-0 away and rotated sides impressively snuck through in 8th with just 1 defeat at home to Toulouse.
A favourable last 16 round saw Mainz face Brondby and fully rotated sides lost 2-1 in Denmark before Ratkovic and Thielmann earned a 2-0 home win. A tougher quarter final followed against Brighton and Hin nicked a 1-0 home victory but lost 3-0 away to exit the competition.
Fighting For Mainz’s Maiden Title
Mainz began 2038 in style as Hernán Acosta’s quick double after halftime inspired a 3-0 win at Frankfurt. That sparked a strong start to the year, including impressive left back Laerte assisting both goals in a 2-0 win over Gladbach and scoring in a 2-0 win at Hertha, which at the time took him to the highest average rating in Bundesliga (7.51). Dortmund thrashed Bayern 4-2 to, realistically, make it a two-horse title race by mid-February, but then lost 1-0 at Stuttgart, while Mainz made it four consecutive 2-0 wins to move 11 points clear at the end of the month.
However, Mainz had a pretty savage run-in that included trips to three of the top 5 and entertaining Bayern. The improving Bottega scored twice to earn a 2-2 at Leverkusen, who equalised late on through Lazaró’s former Valencia man Adriano, before Jorge’s hat trick downed Karlsruhe 3-0 and a solid 0-0 at Leipzig, the same day as Dortmund drew 3-3 at home to Gladbach. That wrapped up Mainz’s best-ever Bundesliga finish and first-ever Champions League qualification with 7 games remaining. But they lost Acosta for the season with a torn hamstring suffered at Leipzig.
Bottega and Martínez edged a 2-1 win at home to Hoffenheim before a potential title decider at Dortmund. The hosts had more shots but only got one on target in the last minute while Mainz bossed possession. And a solid defensive effort earned a 0-0 that put them in pole position for their maiden title.
That sebnt Mainz into the final five games with a 12-point lead over Dortmund, who lost at Schalke on the Friday night before Mainz hosted Koln. That meant a point would be enough for Die Nullfünfer to claim their first Bundesliga. Bottega gave them a flying start, heading home Laerte’s looping cross thanks to some dreadful goalkeeping. They dominated the game, let Koln back into it, but a 1-1 was all they needed.
Mainz were Champions of Germany for the first time!
Mainz celebrated their success with an easy win at struggling holders Hamburg then drew 2-2 at home to Bayern. They eventually won the league by 11 points, finishing on 78 points after 23 wins, 9 draws and 2 defeats, scoring 62 and conceding just 24. Jorge became the first Mainz player to be Bundesliga top scorer with 23 and Bottega got the joint-most assists with 12, while Laerte had the second-best average rating of 7.52 along with 6 MOTM awards.
Despite the rather attacking-looking approach, Mainz’s maiden title was very much built on the foundations of a solid backline. They had the best defence in Bundesliga, conceding just 24 and keeping 19 clean sheets, as well as winning the fewest tackles (661) but having the 2nd-best tackles won ratio (78%). However, they had the highest possession (60%) and best pass completion ratio (91%), and completed the most passes (21,380, which was 2,380 more than next-best Bayern).
Comparatively, they only scored the 3rd-most goals (62) and had the 6th-best xG and shots on target per game, but had the highest xG overperformance (13.5). Interestingly, despite playing a narrow formation with no wingers, Mainz also had the league’s best cross completion (23%). And they won the league with the 6th-lowest wage spend of £43m per year, compared to Leipzig’s £219m, Dortmund’s £188m and Bayern’s £183m. So this was a title won on control of the ball, having their best players fully fit for the league and being extremely clinical.
Mainz Homegrown Players Update
Mainz’s improvement was inspired by several of their youngsters showing dramatic development this season. Top of that list was Bottega, whose first-team experience saw him suddenly jump from 2.5-star to 4-star ability in early February, and then earn his Brazil debut against Croatia in March and score on his 2nd cap against Nigeria. Pushing him close was the fantastic Laerte, who’s become a superb attacking full back with 11 assists and a 7.52 average rating.
Jorge broke the club’s record for goals in a season with 24 in 32 – surpassing the 21 Nelson Weiper scored in Lazaró’s first season in 2033 – followed by Ratkovic (11), Bottega (9), Quiroga (8) and Acosta (7). Bottega led the way with 13 assists followed by Laerte (11), Martínez (9), Quiroga (8) and Angelo Tursi (7). While Cerantola kept a new club record 20 clean sheets and only conceded 24 in 35.
Mainz had 16 players homegrown at the club contribute to a combined 322 league games with 43 goals and 76 cup games with 5 goals – due to the majority of the first team barely playing in the cups. Check out all their stats in the chart below.
The U19s had a better season as they won U19-Bundesliga Sud/Sudwest and the A-Junioren-Meisterschaft. The stars of their team were midfielders Richard Schweizer with 15 goals and 9 assists and Fatmir Isufi with 9 goals and 16 assists and 16-year-old goalkeeper Thomas Thonhofer. See all their stats by clicking the table below:
Rapidly improving striker Bernard Rouxel became the first Mainz player to win European Golden Boy, but Bottega is clearly the player to watch as he became the club’s first NxGn winner. They got another youth intake that was decent but didn’t deliver on the promised 2 As preview, but provided decent prospect attacking midfielder Fabian Ammesdorfer.
This was clearly the best season in Mainz history as their team of nearly fully homegrown stars charged to the club’s first-ever Bundesliga title. The challenge now was for the first team to be fully homegrown and defend their title while stepping up to the Champions League for the first time.
Could Mainz defend their Bundesliga crown? And how would they fare in the Champions League? Join us next Friday to find out!
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