Football as it’s meant to be: The 2023-24 season at a glance

For eleven years, FC Bayern München have made their rivals despair, and the question was repeatedly asked: could these Bavarians even be beaten? The 2023-24 season provided the answer: yes, it is possible. Bayer 04 Leverkusen not only snatched the title from Bayern’s grasp, but also secured the first championship in the club’s history in impressive fashion. Even in their strongest seasons, FC Bayern have never remained unbeaten, whereas Die Werkself did. 34 match days without a single defeat was a first in league history.

Leverkusen’s fabulous season also became a special story thanks to coach Xabi Alonso. The Spaniard moulded Die Werkself into a strong team with an entertaining style of play that also impressed defensively – only 24 goals conceded was the best figure in the league. Even in games where things got tight, it was late goals time and time again that led to a win or at least a draw. Die Werkself scored eight times in stoppage time.

Leverkusen’s 90 points at the end of the season belies the fact that FC Bayern were also very strong with 72 points. Even the outstanding 36 goals that made star striker Harry Kane the Bundesliga’s top scorer in his first season with Bayern, by far the most of any player in Europe’s top leagues, only helped his team to third place.

Why only third place? There was also VfB Stuttgart, who had only managed to avoid relegation in the relegation play-off of previous season but took off in 2023-24 under coach Sebastian Hoeneß. 73 points secured the runners-up spot for the Swabians, with attacker Serhou Guirassy contributing 28 goals and keeping Harry Kane on his heels for a long time. In total, the Bundesliga clubs scored 985 goals (3.2 on average per game) – a record in this millennium.

As if that weren’t enough extraordinary achievements for one season, 1. FC Heidenheim also achieved something incredible: the promoted team, which started as one of the teams most likely for relegation, finished eighth in their first ever Bundesliga season and thus qualified for the UEFA Conference League. European football at the little river Brenz – a huge success for Frank Schmidt’s team. He has been coaching at Heidenheim since 2007, leading the club from the fifth tier of German football to a European competition.

The mood was less euphoric for large parts of the season for 1. FC Union Berlin, who found themselves in a relegation battle after qualifying for the UEFA Champions League in the previous season. They managed to avoid relegation in dramatic manner as Janik Haberer scored a penalty in extra time on matchday 34 to secure a 2-1 win against Freiburg and secured 15th place.

Instead VfL Bochum 1848 had to go into the relegation play-offs, with the club from the Ruhr area looking even more hopeless than the Berliners. Bochum lost the home match at Castroper Straße 0-3 against Bundesliga 2 third-placed Fortuna Düsseldorf. But anyone who thought that would seal their relegation was mistaken. In the return match in the North Rhine-Westphalian capital, Bochum levelled the scores with a 3-0 away win and then won 6-5 on penalties.

1. FC Köln and SV Darmstadt 98 could not be saved from relegation in 2023-24, with both the Billy Goats and the Lilies going down to Bundesliga 2 – and it was an exciting season there too.

The performance level in the Bundesliga 2 is traditionally high, with many clubs hoping for one of the coveted promotion spots every season. Holstein Kiel came out on top for the first time ever. Die Störche qualified for the Bundesliga thanks to 68 points and became the first team from Schleswig-Holstein in the first division.

FC St. Pauli gained one more point than Kiel. It was the sixth Bundesliga promotion for the club from Hamburg, but the first as champions of the single-tier Bundesliga 2. Die Kiezkicker were well deserving of their championship celebrations. With 20 wins in 34 games, St. Pauli set a new club record in the Bundesliga 2, and the total of 69 points was the best haul in the club’s history.

One’s joy was another’s sorrow in Hamburg. Because the city rivals were narrowly beaten in fourth place in the table. The promotions of Kiel and St. Pauli made Hamburger SV the team that has currently played in the Bundesliga 2 for the longest time without an interruption.

A total of 947 goals were scored in the Bundesliga 2 in the 2023-24 season. It was the highest-scoring season in 22 years. The most spectacular match in terms of goals scored was between 1. FC Magdeburg and Hertha BSC. 6-4 was the final score from Magdeburg’s perspective. It was not only the highest-scoring game of the season, but also a historic one, as FCM became the first team in Bundesliga 2 history to win despite conceding four times.

The three top scorers played a large part in the fact that there were so many cheers: Robert Glatzel from HSV, Haris Tabaković from Hertha BSC and Christos Tzolis from Fortuna Düsseldorf each scored 22 goals and thus shared the title of top scorer.

It was the farewell season for another great goal scorer. Simon Terodde decided to hang up his football boots at the age of 36. He missed out on his goal to celebrate another promotion of FC Schalke 04 in his final season, but he will go down in history as the top scorer in 2. Bundesliga having netted 177 goals in total.

Last but not least, Schalke’s fans earned a special place in the history books. On average, 61,000 of them came to the home games, meaning that the Royal Blues beat HSV’s Bundesliga 2 record by more than 8,000 spectators on average per game. No wonder that Bundesliga 2 set a new attendance record with a total of almost nine million stadium spectators and was even better attended on average (28,796) than the French Ligue 1. The Bundesliga once again recorded the most spectators of all European top flights averaging 38,973 spectators per game.