87-year-old Trebor Mahtal showed no signs of slowing up as he led Hannover 96 to their fifth 2. Bundesliga title and back into Germany’s top tier. He was keen to build on a solid defence while adding a bit more of an attacking threat for the step up.
Hannover began the new season with a £76m transfer kitty, which was boosted by selling a few backup players, captain Yanis Hardy to Odd for £11m and midfielder Kevin Sanz to Necaxa for £13m. Mahtal, who was headhunted by FC Bayern over the summer, moved quickly to secure some exciting talents, led by potential superstar Latvian/Norwegian striker Janis Pogodins, who’s been dubbed the next Tore André Flo, for £4.5m from Odd. He was joined by his Odd teammate and model citizen Simen Sunde for £7m, striker Juan Cruz Kadosh, who’s been labelled the next Gabriel Batistuta, for £6.75m from Argentinos, midfielder Luis Iannotti, apparently the next Javier Mascherano, for £5m from Racing, future wing back Andrei Spataru for £4.1m from Politehnica Iasi, wing back Kostas Tsolkas for £4m from Frankfurt and centre back Franck Yao for £250k from ASEC Mimosas. Later, 6ft 6in wonderkid centre back Luis Sánchez rejected the likes of Chelsea to join for £9.5m from San Luis.
Mahtal decided to take a slightly more defensive approach for the step up to Bundesliga, moving from a 3-5-2 to a 3-4-3. Pogodins comes in up top with Sunde competing with Jonny Menabó alongside star man Jorge González dropping a little deeper as a shadow striker.
Stepping up to Bundesliga
The bookies expected Hannover to avoid relegation, predicting them to finish 15th with 350/1 title odds. Gladbach are 9/5 favourites ahead of Mahtal’s former club Borussia Dortmund, who’ve won the last two titles, (12/5), Bayern, who haven’t won the title for three years and just once in eight years, (8/1), Leverkusen (17/2), Hertha BSC (10/1), RB Leipzig (25/1) and Mahtal’s other former German team Eintracht Frankfurt (33/1).
Hannover began their Bundesliga return with a trip to fellow promoted side Schalke. And they started well as Iannotti’s debut goal and a solid defensive effort earned a 1-0 win. They also defended pretty well in their first home game as González’s late goal earned a point against Stuttgart. But some really tough tests followed, starting with a trip to favourites Gladbach – who clearly underestimated them as Pogodins’ first two goals and a Gonzalez brace put them 4-0 up before halftime!
Kadosh scored his first goal off the bench to nick a 1-1 with Freiburg before losing 2-1 at Leipzig and at home to Leverkusen and 2-0 at Dortmund. They got back on track in style as Pogodins and González again scored twice in a 5-2 thumping of Augsburg, before González scored two more in a 2-0 win at Mainz then nicked a late equaliser at home to Frankfurt. Their unpredictable form continued as they got thumped 3-0 at Hertha, Pogodins secured a surprise 1-0 win at home to Bayern, and then lost 2-1 at rivals and surprise leaders Wolfsburg. They wrapped up the year with a 2-2 at Werder Bremen to sit in a comfortable 7th place on 23 points, 12 clear of any relegation concerns. And the impressive González was the top scorer in the league with 10 in 16.
Easy Draw Aids German Cup Progress
Hannover got a good draw in DFB-Pokal, seeing off Hohkeppel, Hansa Rostock and Darmstadt to face reach the quarter finals. A González brace downed Karlsruhe 3-0 and González and Pogodins earned a dominant 2-0 win over second-tier Paderborn to reach only the club’s second-ever Pokal Final, after winning it in 1992.
Outside Shot At Europe
Mahtal saw no need to strengthen the squad in the new year, but did sell striker Daniel Ríos to Vallecano for £4.5m. Hannover began 2072 with a dire 0-0 at home to Koln and a tame 1-0 defeat at Stuttgart. But Pogodins’ brace snapped a five-game winless streak to secure a crucial 2-1 victory at home to 15th-place Schalke and the striker scored again as Hannover upset leaders Gladbach 2-1. Sobon inspired a superb 4-0 hammering of Leipzig and they led early at Leverkusen but fell to a 2-1 defeat before Iannotti earned a solid point at home to Dortmund. And that solid form lifted Hannover to 7th, just 2 points off the European places at the start of March.
They lost ground in an uncharacteristic 4-3 loss at 7th-place Frankfurt, but clambered above Mahtal’s former club with a 2-1 win at bottom side 1860 Munchen. But tough games followed against the top two either side of the cup semi-final, and they got thumped 4-1 at Bayern and lost 2-1 at home to Wolfsburg.
That probably killed off European qualification hopes, leaving them 5 points off 7th with three games remaining. Pogodins secured a 1-0 win at Magdeburg, which confirmed the club’s best-ever Bundesliga finish. But they had to settle for an 8th-place finish, 5 points behind Leverkusen, on 51 points after 14 wins, 9 draws and 11 defeats, scoring 51 and conceding 42. And, impressively, 19-year-old Pogodins finished as the league’s top scorer with 18 in 32. At the top of the table, Wolfsburg nicked the title from Bayern on the final day.
DFB-Pokal Final
Hannover’s biggest game in 80 years saw them come in as big underdogs against Gladbach, who finished 3rd in Bundesliga. Their wingback options were restricted as Nicoló Pelllegrini and Spataru were injured and a few players were oddly short on fitness, but Mahtal lined up:
Boromisa; Nagai, Menkhaus, Bolívar; Sobon, Esters, Iannotti, Tsolkas; Sunde, González, Pogodins
Subs: Kadosh, Kastrup, Sanchez, Hammer, Menabó, Shimada, Mansilla, Ahlburg
Hannover had the first shot in anger as Sunde fired a free kick over. But struck first as another of his free kicks was skewed across the box by a defender to right wing back Adrian Sobon to head home at the back post, only for Gladbach’s superb striker to immediately equaliser. Gladbach dominated from then on, but against the run of play, got the run on his marker to power home Finn-Patrick Menkhaus’ near-post corner. Gladbach offered nothing until their goalkeeper headed a freekick over the bar in injury time. And Hannover held on for unlikely glory.
Hannover 96 won the DFB-Pokal!
Surprise Hannover Cup Success
Mahtal knew he was building a really solid team at Hannover, but certainly wasn’t expecting this Pokal success – aided by an extremely unfortunate cup draw. Indeed, the potential was confirmed by Pogodins winning NxGn 2072 with Sanchez 5th, Werner Esters 22nd and Shigeharu Shimada 39th. And, despite the coaches oddly not rating Menkhaus, the 20-year-old made his Germany debut in March, only to get dropped for the Euros after an injury. Furthermore, Mahtal had already made moves for several exciting youngsters to bolster the squad for next season. But now that was completely irrelevant as he ticked H off the list.
Sobon was undoubtedly the hero of Hannover this season with 5 goals, including the two cup final winning strikes, and a club-high 9 assists. Pogodins led the way with 20 goals in 36 games, along with González scoring 20 with 6 assists in 35 games, and Sunde delivered 5 goals and 7 assists.
In a way, Mahtal was a little sad to be departing Hannover after just two and a half seasons. He was really excited about the squad he was building and believed they had some potentially world-class talents who could challenge Germany’s best. But it wasn’t to be and Mahtal had to tender his position as manager of Hannover. He departed his third German club after 886 days and 93 matches, of which he won 50, drew 22 and lost 21, scoring 148 and conceding 88 with a 53% win ratio.
Where would Mahtal end up next as he began the quest to win a trophy with the 23rd of 26 clubs on his Alphabet Challenge? Join us on Friday to find out!
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