FC Energie Cottbus is a German football club based in Cottbus, in the Lausitz region of Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Energie Cottbus in what was, at the time, East Germany. The club was quickly buttressed by a wholesale transfer of players from BSG Aktivist Brieske-Ost ordered by East German authorities, who often intervened in the business of the country's sports and football clubs for political reasons. Energie Cottbus was the only club from East Germany playing in the Bundesliga until Nuernberg knocked the team out on June 1, 2009.

FC ENERGIE COTTBUS TICKETS Monster Jam Tickets Los Angeles Lakers Tickets The Harlem Globetrotters New York Knicks Tickets Chicago Bulls Tickets Boston Celtics Tickets

History

Predecessor sides

Through this link, the side can trace its roots back to a club founded by coal miners in 1919, in what was then called the town of Marga. Glückauf Marga was active until 1925 when the miners left to form a new team called FSV Sturm Marga which was banned by the Nazis in 1933.

Life in the GDR

The club re-emerged after World War II in 1949 as Franz Mehring Marga , becoming BSG Aktivist Brieske-Ost in 1950. The club was re-named SC Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg in 1954 and played in the DDR-Oberliga generally earning mid-table results until calamitously falling all the way to the fourth tier Cottbus Bezirksliga in the early 60's. The players of this side were delivered to SC Energie Cottbus in 1963.

In the mid-60's a re-organization program by the regime led to the separation of football sides from sports clubs and the creation of BSG von Bodo Krautz under the patronage of a local coal mine. The football club went by that name only briefly and was quickly re-named BSG Energie in early 1966.

German reunification

The team took on the name FC Energie in 1990 at the time of German re-unification.

After years as a II division or lower-table I division side in East Germany, Energie has emerged as one of the few former DDR sides to enjoy relative prosperity in a united Germany. After five seasons playing tier III football, they earned promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in 1997, winning the Regionalliga Nordost, and then played their way into the Bundesliga in 2000, where they managed a three year stay. A key player in their Bundesliga run was Vasile Miriuta, an imaginative midfield player who played a big part in the team's promotion. After being relegated, Energie narrowly missed a prompt return to the top tier, losing out to 1. FSV Mainz 05 on goal differential. In season 2004–05 Energie struggled into both financial (reported debts of 4.5 million Euros) and sports problems: The season goal of promotion was missed by far - the club escaped the relegation to 3rd tier Regionalliga (football) by scoring one more goal (season overall) than SV Eintracht Trier 05 while having the same amount of points and goal differential. During season the manager and the chairman were replaced. Next season (2005–06) was a much more successful one - the club has returned to play in the First Division Bundesliga after winning promotion. The Bundesliga season 2006–07 resulted in a 13th place and a club record in Bundesliga season points (41).

Honours

Youth

• German Under 17 championship runners-up: 2004

Recent seasons

Year	Division	Position
1999-2000	2. Bundesliga (II)	3rd (promoted)
2000-01	Bundesliga (I)	14th
2001-02	Bundesliga	13th
2002-03	Bundesliga	18th (relegated)
2003-04	2. Bundesliga (II)	4th
2004-05	2. Bundesliga	14th
2005-06	2. Bundesliga	3rd (promoted)
2006-07	Bundesliga (I)	13th
2007-08	Bundesliga	14th
2008-09	Bundesliga	16th (relegated)
2009-10	2. Bundesliga

Current squad

As of 26 August 2009 ^[1]

No. Position Player 1 {{flagicon Lars Hirschfeld 2 {{flagicon Thomas Franke 3 {{flagicon Valeriy Sokolenko 4 {{flagicon Stanislav Angelov 5 {{flagicon Sascha Dum (on loan from Bayer 04 Leverkusen) 6 {{flagicon Vragel da Silva 7 {{flagicon Timo Rost (Captain (football)) 8 {{flagicon Roger de Oliveira Bernardo 9 {{flagicon Emil Gabriel Jula 10 {{flagicon Stiven Rivic 11 {{flagicon Leonard Kweuke (on loan from DAC Dunajska Streda) 13 {{flagicon Julian Börner 14 {{flagicon Sergiu Radu 15 {{flagicon Alexander Bittroff 16 {{flagicon Marco Kurth 17 {{flagicon Daniel Ziebig

No. Position Player 18 {{flagicon Marc-André Kruska 19 {{flagicon Marc Zimmermann 20 {{flagicon Shao Jiayi 22 {{flagicon Heiko Schwarz 24 {{flagicon Igor Mitreski 25 {{flagicon Markus Brzenska 26 {{flagicon Nils Petersen 27 {{flagicon Ovidiu Burca 29 {{flagicon Dennis Sørensen 30 {{flagicon Gerhard Tremmel 32 {{flagicon Adi Sobrinho 34 {{flagicon Frank Lehmann (on loan from VfB Stuttgart II) 36 {{flagicon Peter Hackenberg 37 {{flagicon Nils Miatke 38 {{flagicon Adam Straith

Notable players

• Dimitar Rangelov
• Bruno Akrapovic
• Petar Aleksandrov
• Christian Beeck
• Gregg Berhalter
• Andrzej Juskowiak
• Radoslaw Kaluzny
• Jirí Kaufman
• Andrzej Kobylanski
• Sergiu Radu
• Vlad Munteanu
• Kevin McKenna
• Vasile Miriuta
• Laurentiu Reghecampf
• Steffen Heidrich
• Petrik Sander
• Silvio Schröter
• Marko Topic
• Santiago Silva
• Charly Musonda
• Rudi Vata
• Philipp Temidayo Bayode

Team trivia

• On April 6, 2001, Energie became the first Bundesliga club to field a side made up of 11 foreign players.

:The players were Tomislav Piplica, Faruk Hujdurovic, Bruno Akrapovic (Bosnia), János Mátyus, Vasile Miriuta (Hungary), Rudi Vata (Albania), Moussa Latoundji (Benin), Andrzej Kobylanski (Poland), Antun Labak (Croatia), Laurentiu Reghecampf (Romania), and Franklin (Brazil). As a side note, even the three substitutes were foreigners, namely Johnny Rödlund from Sweden, Sabin Ilie from Romania and Witold Wawrzyczek from Poland .

• East German authorities had a penchant for tagging sports teams with the names of socialist heroes: Franz Mehring was a German socialist politician and journalist. He wrote a biography of Karl Marx and was a strong supporter of his ideas.
• Angela Merkel is an honorary member of the club.

References

1. Das Profi-Team des FC Energie Cottbus