PROFILE: Wolfsburg celebrates a first Bundesliga title

By John Bagratuni May 23, 2009, 15:56 GMT

Hamburg - Founded only 71 years ago by the Nazi regime as the home of carmaker Volkswagen and its work force, Wolfsburg entered the football record books on Saturday as Bundesliga champions.

Felix Magath's team took the league by storm to provide the northern German town of 120,000 with a moment as big as the introduction of the VW Beetle and Golf.

'Felix signed good and young players. He had the freedom to build a team,' said VW boss Martin Winterkorn as team captain Josue lifted the trophy in the Volkswagen arena and the whole town turned into a party zone.

The club's home town was officially founded on July 1, 1938 under the name 'Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben' (Town of the KdF-car near Fallersleben), as the home of the VW works and its employees.

The renaming to Wolfsburg occurred on May 25, 1945, less than three weeks after World War II in Europe ended. The football club was founded four months later on September 12, 1945.

Wolfsburg were a German cup finalist in 1995 and gained promotion into the Bundesliga in 1997.

Then VW boss Bernd Pischetsrieder soon demanded that 'the VFL must get into the Champions League' and the club hired Stefan Effenberg in 2002, a year after he had captained Bayern Munich to the Champions League title.

Effenberg lasted less than a year, but it was the first sign that Wolfsburg wanted to shake of its dull image as a works team just like Bayer Leverkusen had managed rather successfully in the 1990s.

Success was sparse, though, and the team barely avoided relegation in 2006 and 2007.

Improvement came under Magath, the former coach of VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich, who was given almost unlimited power on July 1 as coach, sports director and member of the club board.

Magath led the team to a club league-best fifth place last season before bagging the biggest prize on Saturday after reshaping the team with the help of 55 million euros (77 million dollars) from Volkswagen over the past 24 months.

The team features no international top stars, but Swiss international goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic and the record-breaking attacking duo of Grafite (28 goals) and Edin Dzeko (26) rose to new heights.

Ranked a modest ninth in the winter break, Wolfsburg stormed to the top with a 5-1 demolition of Bayern Munich on April 4 and never looked back. They won 16 of the 17 home games (drawing the other) and ended the season with another 5-1, against Werder Bremen.

'I had the opportunity to put to practice my ideas of football,' said Magath.

'This is a dream come true. I didn't believe before the season that we would win the title. We knew we were good. I say we deserved the championship.'

Magath now moves on to Schalke 04 where he could achieve immortality with success. Wolfsburg, for their part, will have to prove in a difficult 2009-10 season what they are capable of without him.

'I don't fear for the future of VFL. Many players have not reached their limit yet. The club will continue to play for titles,' said Magath.