The homegrown stars of 1. FSV Mainz racked up consecutive Bundesliga titles and showed their ability to compete with Europe’s best in an exciting 2038/39 campaign. Now, Roberto Lazaró was looking to make it three in a row as he mulled over this being his final season in football management.
Lazaró was acutely aware he needed to keep strengthening his side, after not making a single signing last season. The good news was he had lots of money to do that as he began his 8th season at Mainz with £435m in the bank, a transfer kitty of £315m and a wage budget of £2.8m, of which he was spending just £1.1m. And he added to that by selling goal-shy striker Bernard Rouxel to Valladolid for £10.5m and homegrown center back Rafael Musel to newly tycooned Bari for £11m.
The Rouxel sale was sanctioned as Lazaró spent a new club record £31.5m on exciting striker Curtis Bentley from Leeds. He was joined by a potentially more important signing in right back Christian Holgersen, who looks like an absolute beast, for £3m from affiliate club Stabaek.
The Holgersen signing allowed Lazaró to deploy a more adventurous right back, which sees him slightly tweak the 4-3-3 narrow formation he’d used in recent seasons. he had two approaches in mind, the first utilising two centre midfielders and two attacking midfielders and the second a 4-1-3-2, which he was probably leaning more towards.
Targeting Three Consecutive Bundesligas
The bookies only had Mainz as 5th favourites to defend their title at 20/1. Bayern remain 5/2 favourites followed by Leverkusen (11/4), Dortmund (3/1) and Leipzig (5/1).
Lazaró began the season with the 4-1-3-2 approach, and it started well as Salvador Martínez, operating in the advanced playmaker role, laid on goals for Acosta and debutant Bentley to down Hamburg 2-0. The manager marked 800 games in football with an early trip to Bayern and the new approach looked even better as Martínez and Santiago Quiroga earned a narrow 2-1 win – which was Lazaró’s first win at Bayern and Mainz’s first in 18 attempts in this save! The strong start continued, built on a rock-solid defence, including striker Damián Jorge nicking a 1-0 win at Dortmund that moved Mainz 7 points clear by December. They took that lead and an unbeaten record into the winter break, which prompted the Mainz board to hand Lazaró a new five-year contract on £55k a week.
Making Light Work of Tricky Champions League Fixtures
Mainz’s second season in the Champions League served up some tricky ties that saw them go to Juve and entertain Man City and Milan. They started off with Bentley scoring both goals then getting sent off in a 2-0 home win over Ajax. Jorge and star man Lucas Bottega inspired a 2-1 win at Juventus before Bentley scored two more in a brilliant 4-2 victory at Lazio. Jorge’s late strike nicked a 1-1 against Milan before playing out a delightfully dull 0-0 with Man City. A rotated side lost 3-2 at Galatasaray but Quiroga edged a 2-1 win at Malmo to send Mainz through in 5th.
They drew an ageing, declining Man City in the last 16, and Quiroga’s late volley earned a 1-1 away before a dominant home win as a rare double by left back Laerte led a 5-2 thrashing. Another English side followed in 2033 winners Spurs, and Mainz got a little lucky to only lose 2-1 away. Spurs obviously scored their first shot in the return leg but were Mainz were much the better side and drew level through Jorge’s powerful strike. Lazaró laid into them at the break and got his reward with a wonderful 25-yard Acosta volley. Spurs undeservedly levelled from a corner goal but Mainz again drew themselves level as captain José Bertazzi headed home a corner. That took it to extra time, Lazaró stayed on the attack, and was immediately rewarded as Bottega’s superb through-ball sent Jorge through for his second. And that proved enough to edge a 5-4 aggregate win.
That took Mainz to consecutive semi finals and yet another English side was up next as they faced Chelsea, while Newcastle took on Lazaró’s former side Valencia. The home leg was up first this time and Mainz started well as Jorge headed home Acosta’s cross only for Christian Adler to score an own goal. Lazaró went attacking and this time it cost him as Chelsea took an undeserved ead, but Laerte was fouled on a corner and Ratkovic slammed home the penalty. And they went to England level-pegging. Mainz’s team was exhausted heading into it and struggled to get going, conceded on the counter then a penalty, answered by another Ratkovic penalty, to again exit in the semis.
Into The 2040s
Mainz began the 2040s where they finished the 2030s as Botteha’s fantastic strike from a narrow angle was enough for a 1-0 win at Wolfsburg. Next time out, Acosta scored straight from kick off and Quiroga doubled the lead inside six minutes at home to Bayern. Remarkably, Bottega headed a third, and doubled his tally from a narrow angle before sending Bentley in for a fifth. Lazaró was a little annoyed that they let Bayern back in with two quickfire responses, but a 5-2 thrashing well and truly represented the changing of the guard in Germany.
That gave Mainz even more confidence as they opened up a 14-point lead by the end of February, and even a rotated side got a 1-1 at home to 4th-place Leipzig. But they finally lost 3-2 at Leverkusen, which set up a two-way title race with Dortmund – who they could clinch the title against in late April.
The run-in began with necessary rotation at home to Augsburg but their defence held firm and a debut goal by academy product right back Christoph Rech earned a 1-0 win. Dortmund also won 2-1 at Schalke. Lazaró also rotated for a trip to Gladbach and another wonderful defensive effort, nine Fernando Valencia saves and Ratkovic’s strike earned another 1-0. Dortmund later won 3-1 against Leverkusen, which set up a potential title decider.
A point at home to Dortmund would seal three titles in a row for Mainz, but they came into it with Bottega and both centre backs injured from the Chelsea first leg a few days earlier. The effect of that game was clear early on as Dortmund dominated and eventually took advantage from a late corner to cut Mainz’s lead to 6 points with two games remaining. Dortmund won before Mainz went to Koln and goalshy Quiroga smashed a shot against the bar after 5 minutes. A tired team tailed off after halftime but held on for a 0-0 that sealed another title.
Mainz celebrated their third consecutive title and waved farewell to their now legendary manager Roberto Lazaró on the final day. And a week off allowed the players to recover and relax and thrash Wolfsburg 5-0 led by a Quiroga brace. That saw Mainz win the title by 4 points, finishing on 86 after 27 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats, scoring 75 and conceding just 18. Bottega led the way with 16 assists and had the 3rd-best average rating of 7.39.
Waving Goodbye To Mainz and Football Management
Bottega was undoubtedly Mainz’s star man, as proven by his fitness issues affecting their Champions League exit, and he finished the season with 14 goals and 18 assists in 41 games. Jorge top scored with a slightly disappointing 19 in 38 followed by Bentley (16) and Quiroga (14), while full backs Holgersen and Laerte, who got a club-high 7.35 average rating, impressed with 10 assists apiece.
The squad still only had an average age of 23, so they were more than capable of becoming a real force and potentially go a step further in Europe. However, Lazaró already had his heart set on bringing his managerial career to an end. After nine seasons at Valencia and eight at Mainz, Lazaró calls time on his adventure with five league titles and three cup wins, including the Champions League at Valencia, and a promotion from 2. Bundesliga. Lazaró’s teams played 847 matches, winning 504, drawing 159 and losing 84 to give him a 59% win ratio, scoring 1,564 goals and conceding 831.
And just as proof of how good these Mainz youngsters were, Bottega became the first Mainz player to win Kopa Trophy with centre back Lasse Lykkeberg claiming an impressive 2nd place. Then Holgersen won NxGn with Bentley in 2nd However, they had easily the worst youth intake of this entire save.
For context, this blog was written two days after we discovered that Football Manager 2025 was being cancelled. I was already planning to end the series to prepare for FM25, and continued with that plan in order to begin a new series that utilises the latest transfer updates – and you can gain some inspiration for new FM saves in our guide to 25 more teams to manage on FM24.
This latest series, which alongside Salvando Santos was started to prolong FM24 beyond the initial delay, has been a blast and I’ve really enjoyed building teams around youth. However, our next series will be a massive long-term effort that’s very much a change in approach!
Thanks for reading our latest Wonderkid Factory and stay tuned for more new content as our new series begins on Monday!
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