Viktoria Aschaffenburg

The club was formed on 24 June 1904 out of the merger of FC Aschaffenburg (6 August 1901) and FC Viktoria Aschaffenburg (12 April 1902). Renamed Sportverein Viktoria 01 Aschaffenburg on 3 June 1906 the united side played in the Kreisliga Odenwald, Kreisliga Nordmain, Kreisliga Südmain and Bezirksliga Main-Hessen (Gruppe Main) for a couple of seasons in the 1920s, changing leagues frequently.

In 1937 they briefly merged with Reichsbahn TuSpo Aschaffenburg to play as Reichsbahn-Viktoria Aschaffenburg, but were an independent side again by 1939. They made a late, short-lived appearance in top flight football in 1942, playing a single season in the Gauliga Bayern (Nord), one of sixteen premier divisions established in the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich.

Historical chart of Viktoria Aschaffenburg league performance after WWII

Aschaffenburg returned to the top flight after World War II playing in the Oberliga Süd for two seasons in the late 40s and then through most of the 50s, competing against sides that would later go on to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's first top tier professional league, such as FC Bayern Munich, 1. FC Nürnberg, and VfB Stuttgart, in front of crowds of 16,000 to 19,000. Generally a lower table side whose best result was a fifth-place finish in 1956, a series of poor performances saw Aschaffenburg drop to tier III play in the Amateurliga Hessen/Amateur Oberliga-Hessen well before the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963.

The team's best performances came in the 1980s when they twice won the Oberliga Hessen title and promotion to 2. Bundesliga, where they played the 1985–86, 1986–87 and 1988–89 seasons. Through this period and into the early 90s Aschaffenburg made a half dozen appearances in the early rounds of DFB-Pokal (German Cup) play. The club's best cup performance came in 1988 when they eliminated then-Bundesliga side 1. FC Köln (1–0) in the second round before eventually going out in the quarterfinals against Werder Bremen (1–3).

A poor finish led to a move down to the fourth division play in the 1993–94 season. In 1995, the clubs under 19 side ended a remarkable series in German football. After 20 consecutive titles in the Under 19 Bayernliga (northern group) by the 1. FC Nürnberg, Viktoria finished this series, becoming only the second club to win this league. Viktoria's junior teams play in the Bavarian league system, unlike its senior team.

The side was relegated to Landesliga Hessen-Süd (V) for a single season in 2003–04 and have since returned to play in Oberliga-Hessen (IV).

A third-place finish in the Oberliga in 2007–08 meant the club became one of the four clubs from this league to gain entry in the Regionalliga Süd for the next season. After finishing 13th in the league in 2008–09, outside the relegation ranks, the club decided to return to the now-named Hessenliga due to financial reasons. Viktoria experienced a further drop at the end of the 2009–10 season when it was relegated to the tier-six Verbandsliga Hessen-Süd despite an eighth-place finish for financial reasons.[4]

Older logo.

In this league, Viktoria came second in 2010–11 and qualified for the promotion round to the Hessenliga, where it succeeded. In November 2011, the members of the club voted for a return to the Bavarian league system after the club had played in Hesse since 1945. Alongside the senior team, the reserve side will also switch associations while the club's youth teams already play in Bavaria. The reasons for the switch were the easier qualification modus for the revamped Regionalligas for 2012, in Hesse the club needed to win the league while for Bavaria a ninth-place finish was adequate for promotion. Another reason was also the lesser requirements in regards to infrastructure for the new Regionalliga Bayern, an important factor for the recovering club who had just escaped insolvency in the previous year.[1][2][3] A fourth-place finish in the Hessenliga in 2011–12 allowed the team to qualify for the new Regionalliga.[5]

After a 15th place in the inaugural Regionalliga Bayern season Viktoria came second-last in the league in 2013–14 and was relegated from the league, now to the Bayernliga Nord, the northern division of the Bayernliga.[6] The club won its division in 2014–15 and made an immediate return to the Regionalliga.[7] It finished 15th in 2015–16 and had to enter the relegation play-off to defend its league place where it lost to SpVgg Bayern Hof and TSV 1860 Rosenheim and dropped back to the Bayernliga.

In 2018-19, the club enjoyed an excellent run in the Bavarian Cup, defeating 3. Liga club TSV 1860 Munich 3-2 at the semi-final stage,[8] before eventually losing 3-0 to local rivals Würzburger Kickers in the final before a packed crowd of 6,033 at the Stadion am Schönbusch.[9]

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:[10][11]

• With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 and the 3. Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier. Also in 2008, the majority of football leagues in Hesse were renamed, with the Oberliga Hessen becoming the Hessenliga, the Landesliga becoming the Verbandsliga, the Bezirksoberliga becoming the Gruppenliga and the Bezirksliga becoming the Kreisoberliga.

As of 28 January 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  SRB Ljubisa Gavric 3 FW  GER Jan Biggel 4 DF  GER Fabian Galm 5 MF  GER Alban Lekaj 6 MF  GER Roberto Desch 7 MF  GER Björn Schnitzer 8 DF  GER Dennis Löhr 9 FW  ITA Salvatore Bari 10 MF  GER Daniele Toch 11 MF  GER Sascha Wolfert 14 MF  GER Johannes Gerhart 15 MF  GER Kevin Wittke 16 MF  GER Simon Schmidt (captain)

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 DF  BIH Tarik Sejdovic 18 DF  AFG Abassin Alikhil 19 DF  TUR Faruk Arslan 21 MF  FRA Daniel Cheron 22 FW  GER Fulbert Amouzouvi 23 DF  AFG Zamir Daudi 24 FW  GER Kristian Vucenovic 25 GK  GER Stefan Steigerwald 26 GK  GER Nemanja Saula 27 GK  GER Peter Neuberger 28 GK  GER Dennis Baumann 29 FW  GER Alper Gökalp  — DF  GER Jonas Fritsch

Recent managers of the club:[12]

Manager	Start	Finish
Ernst Lehner
Horst Heese	April 1986	December 1986
Timo Zahnleiter	1 July 1989	30 June 1990
Werner Lorant	1 July 1990	30 June 1992
Rudi Bommer (player-coach)	1 July 1998	30 June 2000
Nenad Salov	1 May 2003	9 December 2006
Muhamed Preljevic	10 December 2006	27 March 2007
Manfred Allig	28 March 2007	30 June 2007
Andreas Möller	1 July 2007	30 June 2008
Ronny Borchers	1 July 2008	30 June 2009
Marco Roth	1 July 2009	30 June 2010
Peter Lack	1 July 2011	19 March 2012
Antonio Abbruzzese	20 March 2012	4 January 2013
Werner Dreßel	9 January 2013	23 April 2013
Antonio Abbruzzese	23 April 2013	5 May 2013
Julio Alvarez	5 May 2013	17 June 2013
Slobodan Komljenovic	17 June 2013	19 October 2015
Rudi Bommer	20 October 2015	4 December 2015
Jürgen Baier	23 December 2015	Present

The club has qualified for the first round of the German Cup six times:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Viktoria Aschaffenburg.

• Official team site (in German)
• The Abseits Guide to German Soccer (in German)
• Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (in German) historical German domestic league results
• Viktoria Aschaffenburg profile at worldfootball.net