Hopp lived for “his” TSG, but he never put success above human decency. More than 350 million euros would flow into the club after 1989, along with support for handball side Rhein-Neckar Löwen and ice hockey club Adler Mannheim. With Ralf Rangnick, the “football professor”, Hoffenheim stormed from the Regionalliga to the Bundesliga in 2007/08. Yet Hopp’s patronage came under fire from the first day in the top flight.\n\nCritics said he was undermining 50+1 and turning Hoffenheim into a club without tradition.
Hans-Joachim Watzke quickly emerged as chief critic, speaking of a disadvantage for traditional clubs and fuelling hostility, especially in Dortmund. Hopp became public enemy number one in Westphalia.\n\nThe banner showing his face in crosshairs with the words “Hasta la vista, Hopp” became infamous. None of it stopped the project, as Watzke liked to call it disparagingly.
Hopp made Hoffenheim socially acceptable.\n\nIn 2009 the 60-million-euro Rhein-Neckar-Arena was ready. For the club’s 100th anniversary in 1999 he had already gifted a 5,000-seat stadium. With the opening of the new arena against Cottbus, Hopp proudly declared that they were no longer just a village club but the club of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region with 2.4 million inhabitants.
From liver sausage incentives and a missed penalty against the local rival grew two special moments whose effects were eventually felt across all of German football.