Football Season Guide

A historic campaign for Holstein Kiel last season as they secured promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time in their history and came very close to securing only their second major trophy in more than 110 years, only to miss out on the 2.Bundesliga title by just one point. Kiel finished the season with most number of wins, thanks to an excellent second half of the campaign, but dropped points at crucial stages which meant they failed to overtake St. Pauli in the title race. Kiel head into their inaugural Bundesliga campaign without their key midfielder after having sold Philipp Sander to Gladbach in the summer. Tom Rothe was also a regular but has returned to Dortmund following the end of his loan deal while Kirkeskov, Wolf and Mees have also left the club, though they had managed just three starts between the trio. They have boosted their options with Magnus Knudsen and Armin Gigovic, both of the midfielders arriving from FK Rostov and represent the only two outlays so far. Andu Kelati has been signed on free from Hoffenheim while Max Geschwill, Phil Harres, Lio Rothenhagen and Tymoteusz Puchacz have also arrived to boost the numbers. Kiel will be heading into the new season as one of the favorites for the drop straight back to the second division but coach Marcel Rapp will be hoping his side can spring up a surprise and finish above the relegation zone come the end of the season.