After an incredible effort and overcoming the tragic loss of Junior Malanda, Wolfsburg's season must be held in high esteem.
If one were to describe Wolfsburg's pre-season in one word, it would have to be 'modest'. After finishing in fifth place - one point after fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen - in 2014, many people asked Klaus Allofs, the sporting director of the club, about the aims of the club for next season: “We always want to improve," he said, smirking.
The next improvement would, obviously, be to achieve fourth and the resulting Champions League qualification, although he never said that directly. Following the sales of Stefan Kutschke (to SC Padernborn 07), Kevin Scheidhauer (to MSV Duisburg) and Slobodan Medojevic (to Eintracht Frankfurt) and the arrival of Aaron Hunt (from Werder Bremen), Sebastian Jung (from Eintracht Frankfurt) and Josuha Guilavogui (on a two-year-loan from Atletico Madrid), Wolfsburg were still desperately looking for a striker. Due to Romelu Lukaku's decision to head for Everton, they were still on the hunt and opted for Nicklas Bendtner; a striker out of contract but with a mischievous reputation.
The season began in dramatic fashion, with a 5:4 (after penalties) win in the DFB-Pokal against 2. Bundesliga side SV Darmstadt 98 - certainly not what you would call a dream start. The bad start continued with a disappointing five points from the first five Bundesliga games and an horrific first Europa League game against Everton, ending 1-4.
But without anyone really noticing, the “Wolves“ hit the lofty heights of second place after matchday 10, with a 4-0 win in Stuttgart. At the end of December, Wolfsburg had cemented second in the Bundesliga, and were still taking part at the DFB-Pokal and Europa League.
In the winter break Wolfsburg changed their aim, officially, to direct Champions League qualification and signed “the PR-stunt“, as the media called him. Xizhe Zhang arrived from BJ Guoan, with the press thinking that the transfer was made for VW to improve their markets in China.
Koen Casteels also joined, though the goalkeeper was immediately loaned out to Werder Bremen. These transfers weren't given half as much attention as the “big deal“ - the Wolves signed Andre Schürrle from Chelsea for roughly €30m, a massive morale boost for everyone associated with the club.
But then, on January 10th, something horrible happened. Junior Malanda, the young belgian midfield player, died in an car accident. The whole football world was shocked, many players expressed their condolences to the club and to the players who knew him.
After a lot of thinking, Wolfsburg decided to continue to their training camp in South Africa. Ivan Perisic, who was especially affected by the accident, dedicated his hat-trick in a training match to Junior, everyone knew that the Wolves couldn't act like nothing had happened and the rest of the season would be incredibly hard for them.
The second half of the season started with a home game against FC Bayern München, the record champions. The match started emotionally, with a beautiful choreo by the Wolfsburg fans and a minute of cheering for Junior Malanda and it continued in a similar vein.
The Wolves put on the display the Belgian starlet deserved. It all started with an early goal for Bas Dost and ended 4-1 (one more for Dost and two for Kevin De Bruyne) - the hosts were in dreamland. It was not only scoring four goals against the world's best 'keeper, Manuel Neuer, and the dominant Bayern that made this match special and for many people the crucial point of the season, but also the emotional strength from the Wolves.
That game was the start of an incredible run of 14 games, including just one defeat against FC Augsburg, resulting in a temporary 13-point-lead to third place. The big stars of this run were Kevin De Bruyne, who finished with 10 goals and 21 assists, and Bas Dost, who scored 16 goals after a frustrating first half of the season. With spectacular matches like the 5-4 against Leverkusen and the 5-3 against Bremen - Wolfsburg caught attention from almost every German football fan.
The only blip was being knocked out of the Europa League by SSC Napoli, with a 3-6 aggregate defeat. The following Bundesliga matches were rather disappointing but the previous run allowed them to have some bad games and still ended up finishing in second place. The Lower Saxony side could proudly boast of their achievements after a wonderful season.
But they still had a really important game ahead of them; the DFB-Pokal final against Borussia Dormund on May 30th. Although Dieter Hecking, Klaus Allofs and the players constantly played down their great season, whether they won a title or not, it was evident that they wanted to secure some silverware.
The atmosphere around the match was electrifying. Not only was it Jürgen Klopp's last match as the coach of Borussia Dormund, but Wolfsburg wanted to win the cup for Junior Malanda - which they demonstrated with a 19 (Malanda's number) in a heart on their final jerseys.
Dortmund absolutely dominated the first 15 minutes Dortmund and deservedly opened the scoring with an early goal from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The tension and the missing final-experience of the Wolves were cited as the reasons for it.
However, out of nowhere, Wolfsburg completely turned the game around with goals by Luiz Gustavo, Kevin De Bruyne and Bas Dost. The final whistle sounded and the happiness with such a fantastic season was topped off with their first DFB-Pokal title. The party with about 40.000 fans the following day was huge. “It's incredible, the best weekend ever," was almost every player's comment.
The reason for this great success? The team. World class players don't win titles on their own, a team does. A team consisting of stars like Andre Schürrle and Kevin De Bruyne and the lesser-known players like Vieirinha and Daniel Caligiuri, who have burst on to the scene this season. Also Dieter Hecking and Klaus Allofs, who finally gave some consistency and hard to the cause. All in all, we can be sure that the Wolves will be challenge for the title in the coming years.