Opposition Check: SpVgg Greuther Fürth

History was made that evening. The provisional board confirmed its work, adopted official statutes, and thus laid the foundation for the „Spielvereinigung des Turnvereins Fürth“ (Fürth Gymnastics Club Sports Association).

With just 28 members and two active teams, the Fürth club embarked on its new adventure. Despite modest resources, the ingenuity and solidarity of the club’s founders were evident from the start. To boost the club’s finances, they held a Christmas tree raffle – an extremely popular method at the turn of the century for raising money for sporting or cultural activities.

From these humble beginnings, a traditional football club developed over the years – the Spielvereinigung des Turnvereins Fürth, which later became known far beyond the city limits as SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Today, Greuther Fürth is an established team in the 2. Bundesliga (Second Division of the German Football Association).

Currently, Fürth sits in 14th place in the Second Division table with 13 points.

Final stages! As the last quarter of an hour of a match approaches, Fürth really turn it up a notch. Half of their season goals have been scored from the 75th minute onwards – nine out of a total of 18. Only Elversberg (11) have found the net more often in this period. The Cloverleaf’s last three goals even came after the start of the 90th minute. Fürth’s Jannik Dehm scored the decisive goal for the home victory against Preußen Münster shortly before the international break in the 5th minute of stoppage time.

The applause at Sportpark Ronhof slowly dies down as Branimir Hrgota retrieves the ball from the net in the first minute of stoppage time. No wild cheers, no excessive celebrations – just a quiet smile, a quick glance at the stands. Yet it is a moment of historic significance: the captain’s 45th second-division goal for SpVgg Greuther Fürth. A goal that is more than just a consolation goal in the 1-3 defeat against Karlsruher SC in October of this year. It is the moment a 45-year-old record falls – that of Klaus Heinlein.

And Heinlein is standing less than fifty meters away, leaning slightly forward and clapping. „It’s not so bad, quite the opposite,“ the 71-year-old tells Kleeblatt Magazine with a laugh. „I’m happy when someone scores a lot of goals for SpVgg.“ Words so typical of the down-to-earth Fürth native, who himself once made history and was the club’s all-time leading scorer in the second division for many years. Until Branimir Hrgota overtook him.

Branimir Hrgota. He’s been wearing the green and white jersey since 2019 and has long since made his mark: 56 goals in the 2. Bundesliga, plus nine goals in Fürth’s two Bundesliga seasons. Had Fürth not secured promotion to the Bundesliga in 2021, Heinlein’s second-division record would likely have fallen even sooner. But now, after 45 years, the time has come. Two players, two eras – connected by goals, passion, and the Ronhof stadium.

A record that unites. Hrgota, born in 1993 in Jönköping, Sweden, to Bosnian parents, began his football journey in the youth ranks of the small clubs IK Tord and Jönköpings Södra IF, where he stood out as a slight but technically brilliant youngster. His talent didn’t go unnoticed in Germany either: in 2012, Borussia Mönchengladbach brought him to the Bundesliga. After three years in the Lower Rhine region – with goals in the league and in the Europa League – he moved to Eintracht Frankfurt.

In 2019, he moved to Fürth – a move that revitalised his career. He quickly became captain, a key player, and the team’s emotional leader. He scored his first goal for the Cloverleaf on the fifth matchday of the 2019/20 season: in the fourth minute, he put Fürth ahead 1-0 against Arminia Bielefeld. The match ended 2-2 – the beginning of a special connection between Hrgota and the club.