Bundesliga in the context of "1964–65 SV Werder Bremen season"

Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (German: [ˌʃalkə nʊl ˈfiːɐ̯] ), and abbreviated as S04 (German: [ˈɛs nʊl fiːɐ̯] ), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system, following relegation from the Bundesliga in 2022–23. Other activities offered by the club include athletics, basketball, handball, table tennis, winter sports and eSports.

The "04" in the club's name derives from its formation in 1904. Schalke have been one of the most popular professional football teams in Germany, even though the club's heyday was in the 1930s and 1940s. As of September 2025, the club has 200,000 members, making it the third-largest football club in Germany and the sixth-largest club in the world in terms of membership.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH (German: [ˌbaɪ̯ɐ ˈleːvɐˌkuːzn̩]) and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the Bundesliga, the top tier of German football, and plays its home matches at the BayArena.

Founded in 1904 by employees of the paint factory, today better known as a pharmaceutical company Bayer (whose headquarters are in Leverkusen and from which the club draws its name), the club was formerly a department of TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen sports club whose members participate in athletics, gymnastics, basketball, field and handball. In 1999, the football department was separated from the sports club. Bayer Leverkusen's main colours are red and black, which feature across their playing kits and badge, and their main rival is 1. FC Köln, while the fans have a deep friendship with the supporters of Kickers Offenbach for almost 50 years.

Gerd Müller (German pronunciation: [ˈɡɛʁt ˈmʏlɐ]; 3 November 1945 – 15 August 2021) was a German professional footballer. A prolific striker, especially in and around the six-yard box, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers and players in the history of the sport. With success at club and international level, he is one of ten players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d'Or.

At international level with West Germany, he scored 68 goals in 62 appearances, and at club level, in 15 years with Bayern Munich, in which he scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches, he became—and still is—record holder of that league. In 74 European club games he scored 65 goals. Averaging over a goal a game with West Germany, Müller was, as of 11 July 2021, 21st on the list of all time international goalscorers, despite having played fewer matches than every other player in the top 48. Among the top scorers, he has the third-highest goal-to-game ratio. He also had the highest ratio of 0.97 goals per game in the European Cup, scoring 34 goals in 35 matches.

Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, commonly known as Fraport, is a German transport company which operates Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt am Main and holds interests in the operation of several other airports around the world. In the past the firm also managed the smaller Frankfurt-Hahn Airport located 130 kilometers west of the city. It is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and also through the exchange's Xetra trading system. The company's shares are included in the MDAX. The company's current chief executive officer is Stefan Schulte [de]. As of 2019, the company has 22,514 employees and annual revenues of about €3.3 billion. Fraport was the main sponsor of the Bundesliga football team Eintracht Frankfurt from 2002 to 2012.

Fraport AG is also involved in ground handling operations at its own operated airports and at third-party operated airports. It mostly operates ground handling services in a deregulated context. Fraport was also involved to make Frankfurt Airport and Indira Gandhi International Airport ready for Airbus A380 operations.

The German Football Association (German: Deutscher Fußball-Bund [ˈdɔʏtʃɐ ˈfuːsbalˌbʊnt]; DFB [ˌdeːʔɛfˈbeː] ) is the governing body of football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of the men's and women's national teams. The DFB headquarters are in Frankfurt am Main. Sole members of the DFB are the German Football League (German: Deutsche Fußball Liga; DFL), organising the professional Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga, along with five regional and 21 state associations, organising the semi-professional and amateur levels. The 21 state associations of the DFB have a combined number of 23,868 clubs with little more than 8 million members, making the DFB the single largest sports federation in the world.

Mario Mandžukić (Croatian pronunciation: [mâːrio mǎndʒukitɕ]; born 21 May 1986) is a Croatian football coach and a former player who was most recently an assistant coach for the Croatia national team. As a player, he played as a forward and became known for his aggressiveness, defensive contribution, and aerial prowess.

Starting his career in 2004 at hometown club Marsonia, Mandžukić then moved to two Zagreb-based clubs: NK Zagreb in 2005 and Dinamo Zagreb in 2007. He was Croatian First League top goalscorer in the 2008–09 season. After joining VfL Wolfsburg in 2010, Mandžukić moved to fellow-Bundesliga side Bayern Munich in 2012. He helped Bayern win their first continental treble (Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, Champions League) in his first season, and became the first Croatian to score in a Champions League final. After winning a domestic double the following season, he left Bayern for La Liga club Atlético Madrid in 2014, and a season later was signed by Juventus in the Serie A. Mandžukić won four league titles and three Coppa Italia titles with Juventus, and reached the 2017 Champions League final. He left Juventus in December 2019 for Qatari side Al-Duhail and returned Italy in January 2021, signing with AC Milan. He retired in September of the same year.

Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, German pronunciation: [ˈfuːsbalˌklʊp ˈbaɪɐn ˈmʏnçn̩]), commonly known as Bayern Munich (German: Bayern München), FC Bayern (pronounced [ˌɛft͡seː ˈbaɪɐn] ) or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, who play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Bayern are the most successful club in German football and are among the world's most decorated, having won a record 34 national titles, including eleven consecutive titles from 2013 to 2023 and a record 20 national cups, alongside numerous European titles.

Bayern Munich was founded in 1900 by eleven players, led by Franz John. Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga during its inception in 1963. The club found success in the mid/late-1960s, but the pinnacle came in the 1970s under the captaincy of Franz Beckenbauer, as they won the European Cup three consecutive times (1974–1976). Overall, Bayern have won six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles (a German record), winning their sixth title in the 2020 final as part of the Treble, and it became the second European club to achieve this feat twice. Furthermore, the club is one of five teams that have earned the right to keep the trophy and to wear a multiple-winner badge. The club has reached the final of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League eleven times, a joint second-most of any club in the history of the competition and is also second placed in numbers of semi-final appearances. Bayern has also won one UEFA Cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups and two Intercontinental Cups, making it one of the most successful European clubs internationally, and the only German club to have won both international titles. Bayern players have accumulated five Ballon d'Or awards with multiple players coming in the second position in the award, two The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, five European Golden Shoe and three UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards, including UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.

Kicker (stylized in all lowercase) is Germany's leading sports magazine, focused primarily on football. The magazine was founded in 1920 by German football pioneer Walther Bensemann and is published twice weekly, usually Monday and Thursday. Each edition sells around 80,000 copies. Kicker is a founding member of European Sports Media, an association of football publications.

Kicker annually awards the most prolific scorer of the Bundesliga with the Kicker Torjägerkanone (lit. 'Kicker scorer cannon') award. It is equivalent to the Pichichi Trophy in Spanish football.

The 2. Bundesliga (Zweite Bundesliga [ˈtsvaɪtə ˈbʊndəsˌliːɡa]; lit. '2nd Federal League') is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below the Bundesliga and above the 3. Liga in the German football league system. All of the 2. Bundesliga clubs take part in the DFB-Pokal, the annual German Cup competition. A total of 127 clubs have competed in the 2. Bundesliga since its foundation.

The decision to establish the league as the second level of football in West Germany was made in May 1973. The league started operating in August 1974, then with two divisions of 20 clubs. It was reduced to a single division in 1981. From the 1991–92 season onwards clubs from the former East Germany started participating in the league, briefly expanding it to two divisions again. It returned to a single division format again at the end of that season and has had 18 clubs since 1994. Two clubs from the 2. Bundesliga are directly promoted to the Bundesliga, while a third promoted club is determined through the play-offs, from 1974 to 1991 and again since 2008. Between 1991 and 2008 the third-placed club in the league was directly promoted. The bottom clubs in the league are relegated to the third division; from 1974 to 1994, the Oberliga, from 1994 to 2008, the Regionalliga and since 2008, the 3. Liga. The number of relegated clubs has fluctuated over the years. Since 2008 two clubs are directly relegated while the third-last team has the opportunity to defend its league play in the play-offs against the third placed team of the 3. Liga.