VfL Bochum

VfL Bochum take the 1848 in their full name from the Turnverein zu Bochum, a gymnastics club whose roots the club dates to July 1848. The football club itself was created on 14 April 1938, when the Nazi authorities forced the Bochumer Turnverein, TuS Bochum 08 and Germania Bochum to merge. The team plays in blue and white at the Ruhrstadion on Castroper Strasse, rebuilt in stages and reopened in 1979 on a site used for football since 1911.

Bochum reached the Bundesliga in 1971 and stayed until relegation in 1993; during that run fans took to calling the side Die Unabsteigbaren, the unrelegatables. They have won the 2. Bundesliga four times, in 1994, 1996, 2006 and 2021, and lost DFB-Pokal finals to 1. FC Koln in 1968 and Eintracht Frankfurt in 1988. UEFA Cup runs followed in 1997-98 and 2004-05. Relegation in May 2025 ended a four-year Bundesliga spell.