edit: Sorry, for the "sounds dumb" part. It had more to do with the more than century existence of the club and it had no personal purpose. I removed it before you posted, but just too late.
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I have no problems with villages being succesful. A club has to start and become succesful from somewhere. Villages do have supporters.
All the other clubs in the Bundesliga used money to get there, or wasted money if they didn't get anywhere.
These critics mostly come from people who can't stand it that their team can't do the same thing with more money. Hoffenheim is not the richest club. They don't have more foreigners than the average Bundesliga topclub.
Better read page 2 from your linked article. Check:
....Descriptions of Hoffenheim as Germany's Chelsea, with Hopp cast in the role of Roman Abramovich, were inevitable but not entirely accurate. Unlike the Russian oligarch, Hopp had to build a club from virtually nothing and knew full well that a patient, organic approach was the only way forward. He didn't appear on the scene determined to parachute in expensive players from higher leagues. For a long time, the main priority was getting the infrastructure in place; the club now has wonderful training facilities, a comfortable 6,000-capacity stadium, opened in 1998, and a number of youth academies.
Even now, bricks and mortar form an essential part of his master plan. A new $80 million, 30,000-capacity ground is under construction, with the opening scheduled for early next year. Until then, Hoffenheim is staging games in Mannheim, 32 miles away. Also in the pipeline is a state-of-the-art performance center at nearby Zuzenhausen.
Also, it was largely homegrown talent that propelled the club up as far as the third level of German soccer in '06. Only then did Hoffenheim start to spend serious money on recruits, and it's worth noting that alongside the deluxe signings, the club has snapped up many bargains as well. Of the current first team, center back Marvin Compper was bought from Gladbach for just $134,000, midfielder Tobias Weis cost $201,000 from Stuttgart, and Bosnian attacker Sejad Salihovic came in from Hertha Berlin for $322,000.
Hoffenheim is certainly a club for the He Who Must Not Be Named. Just as Hopp is the epitome of the outsider, head coach Ralf Rangnick, who arrived in the summer of '06 following spells at Ulm, Stuttgart, Hannover and Schalke, is still regarded with suspicion by many in the German footballing establishment. His team plays entertaining, attacking soccer, and he is an able organizer and tactician. But for many of the old school, he is "not one of us," tainted by his professorial, progressive image and the fact he never played at the highest level.
Rangnick is clearly proud to have led his young team from regional league to Bundesliga in double-quick time and takes exception to the critics.
"I'm irritated when I hear people say our success is all about money and that we somehow are not a real football environment," he says. "We've just sold 14,000 season tickets, which is a sensational figure. We have the same annual budget as [modest Bundesliga club] Energie Cottbus and our wage structure puts us in the bottom third of the league. Of course we haven't any tradition. We are only starting to write the club's history. But we've earned the right to walk out on to Bundesliga pitches and show what we can do. If participation in the Bundesliga was on the basis of a vote, you might as well call it a day."
Belief in youth
Contrary to what their detractors claim, Hoffenheim is a club of principles, and one of the most important planks in its philosophy is an unshakeable belief in youth.
In the past couple of years, it hasn't bought a single player older than 24 and the average age of the team that took to the field on the opening day of this season -- a 3-0 win at Cottbus -- was a mere 23.36 years.
The rising generations are well catered for, too, under the watchful eye of innovative head of youth development Bernhard Peters, the former coach of Germany's male hockey team whom Klinsmann tried and failed to have installed as the federation's technical director during his time as national-team coach.
Significantly, Hoffenheim claimed its first national junior title this year, the Under-17s bringing home the bacon.
"Our tradition is the future," Hopp says. He may be right.
*ducks*
(EDIT: All four matches starting at 15:00, that is - Chelsea beat Watford in the late kick-off one).