Union Berlin in the Champions League: 'Soon all of Europe will know our songs'
Union Berlin
in the Champions League: 'Soon all of Europe will know our songs'
Kit Holden reflects on Union Berlin in the Champions League and the draw which will see them face Portugal’s Braga, Italian champions Napoli and 14-time winners Real Madrid.
A few years ago, East German minnows Union Berlin were battling relegation in the second division. Now, they are preparing to face Real Madrid in the Champions League.
The Soviet tanks can’t stop them this time. Nor, one would hope, can Al-Qaida, Covid-19 or the mayor of Leuven.
There have been many things over the years which have stopped Union Berlin fans from watching their team in Europe.
But this autumn will be different. This autumn, they are playing Real Madrid, and they are not going to miss it for the world.
“Today was a day which made me and many other Unioners very happy,” beamed club president Dirk Zingler after the Champions League draw two weeks ago, which pitted Union against Spanish giants Madrid, Italian champions Napoli and Portuguese side Braga in this year’s group stage.
The East Berlin club had qualified for Europe’s biggest competition back in May, but it was only now that it began to feel real.
Union in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Union in the Santiago Bernabeu.
To put this in context: Five years ago, Union were trying to stave off relegation in the second division.
Fourteen years ago, their were celebrating promotion from the third division as if it were a miracle, having volunteered in their thousands to help the club rebuild the stadium. A few years before that, they were playing Falkensee-Finkenkrug in the fifth tier.
This is a club which has risen from the very bottom to the very top, without the help of an oligarch or an oil state.
When Union were promoted to the Bundesliga in 2019, most people thought it was the pinnacle.
“Scheisse! We’re going up!” joked the fans as they worried what this dizzying success would do to their little community club.
Nobody could have dreamed they would soon qualify for Europe three years in a row, and eventually come up against Real Madrid.
But then Union had never had much luck with Europe. In 1968, when they qualified for the European Cup Winners’ Cup as East German cup winners, the Prague Spring and its brutal suppression by the Soviets led to a boycott of the tournament by all eastern bloc nations, denying Union the chance to compete.
In 2001, they got back into Europe on a technicality after reaching the German cup final. But as a third division no-name, there was little hope of success. Their first Europa League game against Haka Valkeakosi of Finland was delayed after UEFA cancelled all games in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In the next round, they were knocked out by Bulgarian side Litex Lovech.
In 2021, when Union reached the Conference League, the Covid pandemic prevented many fans from seeing their team in European action.
Even in last year’s Europa League, there were hurdles: a game in Belgium was held behind closed doors after fan trouble, leading the Leuven city authorities to briefly ban any German citizen from entering the town on matchday.
The dream continued nonetheless. As their side notched up famous victories over Malmö, Braga and Ajax, Union fans drank it all in, and were careful to stay true to their roots.
At away games, they styled themselves as the “Reisekader” or “travel cadre”, a term ironically borrowed from the bureaucracy of the old communist East Germany.
On the terraces, they sang of their team’s remarkable rise in recent years: “Back then, the second division with Damir Kreilach / Soon all of Europe will know our songs!”.
And so they will. In the coming Champions League season, Union will have to play their home games in Berlin’s Olympiastadion, as their beloved Alte Försterei home ground in East Berlin is too small for the biggest stage.
There, and in Naples and Madrid, they will sing the roof off. Union are in the big time, and there is nothing which can stop the party now.
