Olimpija faces unique challenge against Bundesliga’s Heidenheim

Olimpija confidently qualified for the Conference League, winning five times and drawing once in six matches against three opponents. Now, in the new "Swiss" system, they face six opponents, and if they collect enough points to finish at least 24th out of 36 teams, they will advance to the next stage. Given the opponents, this goal seems realistically achievable. The toughest opponent will undoubtedly be the first one.

First, Ljubljana will travel to face Heidenheim, a small town with 50,000 residents, located halfway between Stuttgart and Munich, home to the Bundesliga club of the same name. Their stadium, Voith-Arena, which holds fewer spectators than Stožice (15,000), is the highest-altitude Bundesliga stadium at 555 meters above sea level. Heidenheim’s success story began in 2007 when they split from their parent sports club, and former player Frank Schmidt became head coach, a role he still holds today.

Heidenheim's rise has been steep but entirely organic. In 2009, they reached the third division, in 2014 the second division, and last year they made their breakthrough into the top tier of German football. In 2020, they were close to this achievement but were eliminated by Werder due to an away goal in the playoffs. In 2023, they dramatically defeated Regensburg with two injury-time goals and knocked HSV into third place, just as their fans were already celebrating promotion.

In their historic first Bundesliga season, they didn’t fight desperately for survival as many expected but instead finished mid-table, securing eighth place and qualifying for the Conference League playoffs. Thanks to Germany’s strong coefficient, they entered directly into the playoffs, where they defeated Swedish side Hacken (2:1, 3:2).

In the 2023/24 Bundesliga season, they started with two defeats against Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim, but then showed resilience by earning a point away at Dortmund in front of 81,000 spectators in the third round. In the fourth round, they achieved their first historic Bundesliga victory, beating Werder, the team that had blocked their promotion three years earlier, in front of a packed home crowd. In this dream season, they also defeated Stuttgart (2:0) and Bayern (3:2), while Dortmund couldn’t beat them in the return match, which ended 0-0. In the second half of the season, they lost only four of their 18 matches.

Heidenheim's rise is a completely different and diametrically opposite story to the rise of privately-owned clubs like Hoffenheim and Leipzig, both corporate projects despised by much of German football. The president of Heidenheim is still Holger Sanwald, who led the club during its amateur days, and the sporting director is Alexander Raaf, a former teammate of coach Schmidt, who has also been with the club since its amateur days.

Their stadium, built in 1972, has grown with the club. Not long ago, it had only one stand for 700 spectators. Gradually, they removed the running track around the pitch and built stands on all four sides. In 2015, when they were in the second division, Voith-Arena took its current form as a modern stadium that meets all the criteria of top-tier football and can hold 15,000 spectators. Last season, the stadium was sold out for all 17 home games in the Bundesliga.

Although Olimpija has much more European experience than Heidenheim, the Germans are the clear favorites for this first match. The number of spectators remains to be seen, as only 11,600 attended the match against Hacken, fewer than the Olimpija-Rijeka game at Stožice. However, Heidenheim certainly has a stronger squad than the green-whites.

It will also be interesting to see how Bayern’s teenage sensation Paul Wanner performs in Heidenheim's jersey. Bayern loaned him to Voith-Arena at the start of the season, and he is considered one of Germany's most promising youth internationals. The key players in Frank Schmidt’s team are the defensive midfielders Lennard Maloney (born in Berlin but representing the US national team) and Niklas Dorsch. In defense, central defenders Benedikt Gimber and captain Patrick Mainka are crucial, while up front, the goalscoring responsibility falls mainly on Marvin Pieringer and Dane Mikkel Kaufmann, who joined from Union Berlin this summer for 1.25 million euros.

At first glance, Heidenheim might not seem like the most attractive opponent, but when you look at their incredible story, you realize that Olimpija will be facing a very special and unique club.