Ottmar Hitzfeld described it as "the sensation of the season" and who are we to quibble with the two-times Champions League-winning coach? VfB Stuttgart's transformation from a rag-tag squad packed with youth team graduates to champions of Germany is one of the most incredible stories European football has generated this year.
It is all the more remarkable for being overseen by a coach previously dismissed as a no-hoper without the necessary stomach to cut it at the top level. Armin Veh is a man of little public emotion, yet he wore a broad smile of vindication as he hoisted the Bundesliga shield high into the Saturday evening air. His grey suit had been soaked beyond the means of dry-cleaning by a jumbo stein of lager tipped over his head in celebration. Plenty more in and around Stuttgart awoke yesterday to happily suffer the after-effects of alcoholic celebration.
Some 56,000 people inside the Gottlieb-Daimler stadium began to party after the clinching 2-1 win over Energie Cottbus, with a further 60,000 having packed into Schlossplatz to watch the action unfold on giant screens. It was a throwback to last summer when the Swabian city had been one of the festivity bases as Germany locked the World Cup in a Teutonic embrace.
The victory over Cottbus was Stuttgart's eighth in succession in the Bundesliga. The team which represents this centre of automotive excellence, home to both Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, accelerated towards unlikely glory while their rivals spluttered like a Hillman Imp run on bio-fuel. Hitzfeld's Bayern Munich broke down more than month ago, missing out on the Champions League for the first time in 11 years, while Werder Bremen's performance was undermined by key components actively eyeing transfers to more glamorous clubs.
Schalke had been top for almost three months but German football's eternal nearly men again displayed their legendary propensity for swerving off course when in sight of success. They lost the Ruhr Valley derby to Borussia Dortmund on the penultimate weekend of the season, an encounter which sent the schadenfreude scale into gloating meltdown, and Stuttgart motored past on the outside.
Veh's team then just had to win their final match to keep Schalke at bay and seal a first title in 15 years. They fell a goal behind to Cottbus, but displayed their emerging character by scoring twice to kick off a carnival of amazed jubilation.
No-one, not even their most ardent supporter, had seriously backed them to be champions last August. The only table Veh topped was that of the Bundesliga manager most likely to be fired first.
He had been plucked from unemployed obscurity to replace Giovanni Trapattoni in February 2006 as a stand-in until the end of last season. Stuttgart initially did okay under his tutelage, although hardly spectacularly, and finished in ninth place. The club's board was split as to whether to discard the 46-year-old or not, but Horst Heldt, the sporting director, persuaded them to stick by Veh.
Yet the dissenting voices rose in volume once more as the team stumbled through the early weeks of the new campaign.
Veh had previously sampled minimal success with SpVgg Greuther Furth, SSV Reutlingen and Hansa Rostock, and many sought a higher-profile name to revitalise the club.
It suddenly clicked with a 3-0 win over Schalke at the end of October. Stuttgart's homegrown youngsters came to the fore and once again proved the merits of one of Germany's most highly regarded academies. Andreas Beck and Serdar Tasci looked solid in defence, while Christian Gentner and Sami Khedira, who would ultimately score the goal that delivered the title, thrived in midfield.
Up front, Mario Gomez installed himself as the club's leading scorer.
Their youth was balanced by clever additions masterminded by Heldt.
In particular, the signing of the Mexican duo of Ricardo Osorio and Pavel Pardo proved inspired, bringing a shrewdness and sophistication to the squad.
There is no point in pretending the Bundesliga is currently at the same standard enjoyed in years past, yet neither should that detract from the tremendous achievement fashioned at Stuttgart. A double beckons as they will lock horns with Nurnberg in the DFB Cup final in Berlin this Saturday.
After previously being written off, Veh and his players now have the chance to scrawl their names in history.
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