😍 Still in love with football? These teams have dazzled us in 2025 | OneFootball

When the little ones suddenly become big, the favorites have nothing left to say, or fallen football giants suddenly rise again – that's when fans quickly fall in love with a team.

Even in 2025, there were those teams that achieved the unimaginable. It's high time to celebrate them once more.

Village Club on a Roll

A few hundred meters from the Baltic Sea, in mid-October 2025, some farmers gathered with their tractors to escort the local football team to their championship parade. Things every village league club knows. Only, we're not talking about the village league here.

Mjällby AIF had just accomplished becoming the Swedish first division champion for the first time in the club's history. An 800-inhabitant village club, filled with numerous local players, a coach who previously taught as a teacher, and a chief scout who works as a postman during the day.

This story sounds almost too good to be true. All the better that it really is. We look forward to Mjällby AIF's first European Cup appearances in the summer of 2026.

Who Needs a Large Population?

Curaçao will not play in the European Cup in the summer of 2026 – but they will play in the Football World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

As the smallest country by population ever – officially around 150,000 inhabitants – the island nation qualified for a World Cup for the first time. The team's coach is none other than Dick Advocaat. The former Bundesliga coach will face the German national team with his squad on June 14, 2026, in Group E. Hopefully, there won't be any reason to fall further in love with Curaçao then…

Teaching the Bundesliga Fear

What do Union Berlin, SC Freiburg, Werder Bremen, and Bayer 04 Leverkusen all have in common? Correct: They were all knocked out of the competition by a third-division team last season.

At the Bielefelder Alm, Arminia, under coach Mitch Kniat, went on an absolutely crazy run that took them all the way to the DFB-Pokal final in Berlin.

In front of over 70,000 football fans, Bielefeld finally had to concede a 2-4 defeat against VfB Stuttgart. Fortunately, the current second-division team had already won the hearts of half the football republic by then.

Old Bundesliga Incoming?

Two other clubs in Germany are currently achieving this as well. At least they are winning the hearts of those who long for a Bundesliga of old times.

Let's start with the former Bundesliga dinosaur: Hamburger SV is by no means loved by everyone – and yet it belongs in the Bundesliga just as much as the billy goat belongs to 1. FC Köln. After seven years, HSV is back in the top tier since the summer and, as the current 13th in the table, has legitimate chances of staying up.

📸 AXEL HEIMKEN

Schalke 04 suddenly also has legitimate chances for the Bundesliga again. Under Miron Muslic, the club is experiencing a genuine resurrection. While the club felt dead in recent years and had to plan for the third division, they are currently at the top of the second division table.

Muslic has elevated the Royal Blues, especially defensively, to a completely new level and rightfully led them to the autumn championship. Now just please get promoted, S04.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 JOHAN NILSSON