On 8 August 1907, the day Augsburg was celebrating its traditional Peace Festival, a group of young men in the Oberhausen district founded FC Alemannia. Today's FC Augsburg descends from that club and turns 120 on 8 August 2027. It is a story of many mergers, big names and a promotion that was a long time coming.

Thirty young men in Oberhausen

The club was founded at the "Schwäbischer Hof" with about 30 members, and Fritz Käferlein as its first chairman. In the early years the players wore white shirts with black shorts.

In 1909 the club joined forces with TV 1871 Augsburg and moved to a new ground. In 1921 it took the name BC Augsburg, which it kept for almost half a century, and in 1951 it lifted the Bavarian Cup.

The 1969 merger

In 1969 BC Augsburg merged with the football section of the city's other big club, TSV Schwaben. That was the birth of FC Augsburg, which played its first match on 30 July 1969 and lost 3-0 to Nürnberg.

The new name brought new colours: red, green and white, the colours of the city itself. Ever since, the team nicknamed the "Fuggerstädter" has played mostly in white.

The pine cone and the white shirt

The badge shows the Zirbelnuss, the pine cone that also appears on Augsburg's coat of arms. The current logo has been in use since 2002.

The classic shirt is white with a red-and-green stripe. The club brought it back for its first Bundesliga season and its first European adventure, and for an anniversary match in 2018-19 the team wore retro kits inspired by 1907.

The colours also produced a lovely fair-play story. In a match at Freiburg, Augsburg wore white instead of their green away kit so as not to confuse opponent Lukas Kübler, who struggles to tell red from green.

Haller, Schuster, Riedle

The greatest player in the club's history is Helmut Haller. In 1962 he moved to Bologna, according to the club as the first German footballer in Italy, and later played for Juventus.

When he came back to Augsburg in the mid-1970s, the city caught fire: home games averaged 23,000 spectators, and the team missed promotion by a single point.

Bernd Schuster came through the FCA youth ranks before leaving for Köln in 1978. Karl-Heinz Riedle wore the shirt from 1983 to 1986, scoring 31 goals in 80 appearances.

Promotion in 2011 and Europe

In 2000 the club was refused a licence for the third tier, even though it had earned its place on the pitch, and dropped to the fourth. The way back was gradual, and in 2006 it returned to the 2. Bundesliga after 23 years.

On 8 May 2011 an 85th-minute goal by Stephan Hain against FSV Frankfurt sealed the club's first ever promotion to the Bundesliga. In 2014-15 the team finished fifth, its best ever placing, and the following season it reached the Europa League round of 32, where it went out 1-0 on aggregate to Liverpool.

Since 2009 the club has played at the WWK Arena, and it remains in the Bundesliga, where it finished ninth in 2025-26 under coach Manuel Baum.

Celebrate with us

From 30 young men in Oberhausen to the stadiums of the Bundesliga, FC Augsburg has learned to climb with patience. Happy birthday, FCA, on your 120 years!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Augsburg's WWK Arena – Arne Müseler, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.