SV Alsenborn
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| Full name | Sportverein 1919 Alsenborn e.V. |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1919 |
| Ground | Kinderlehre |
| Capacity | 8,000 |
| Chairman | Dirk A. Leibfried |
| League | A-Klasse Kaiserslautern-Donnersberg (IX) |
| 2015–16 | 14th |
The SV Alsenborn is a German football club from the municipality of Enkenbach-Alsenborn, Rhineland-Palatinate.
The club became famous in Germany in the 1970s as a village club attempting to win promotion to the Bundesliga. For a time, it was coached by German football legend Fritz Walter, who wrote a book about the club, titled Aufstieg einer Dorfmanschaft (English: Rise of a village team).
The club was often seen as a football "miracle", considering how highly it achieved with a mostly amateur team from a small village.
The club was formed on 15 September 1919, by 19 foundation members, under the name of FV Alsenborn.
In 1933, with the rise of the Nazis to power, the club conformed to the new powers; while another football club in town was formed whose membership exclusively consisted of social democrats.
The club, for most of its history, played in the lower amateur leagues of the Südwest (English: Southwest) region. In 1945, it renamed itself to SV Alsenborn but continued its existence as a village sport club.
The club's fortunes fundamentally changed in the 1960s when the retired captain of Germany's 1954 FIFA World Cup winning squad, Fritz Walter, moved to town. Walter became the coach of the side who was playing at this stage in the local A-Klasse, then the fifth tier of the German football league system in the region. He would remain coach for three years, a highly successful spell.
While watching the 1962 European Cup Final in Amsterdam, Walter and Hannes Ruth, another former 1. FC Kaiserslautern player, vowed to build up the little club and take it to the top level of German football.
With a number of former Kaiserslautern players in its squad, SVA started to win promotions straight away, winning the A-Klasse in 1963, the Bezirksliga in 1964 and then, on first attempt, winning the Amateurliga Südwest (III) in the 1964–65 season.
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