Lost Giants

The Original Bundesliga Clubs

Book Two of the Lost Giants Series

They helped launch the greatest league in the world—then vanished from its top tier.

In this excellent follow-up, second volume of the Lost Giants series, we revisit the clubs that were part of the Bundesliga's historic 1962 inaugural season but are no longer among Germany's elite. Once fixtures in sports highlights and cup upsets, these clubs now fight for recognition in lower divisions, far from the limelight they once basked in.

Through detailed storytelling and sharp analysis, Lost Giants: The Original Bundesliga Clubs explores the rise, fall, and current state of clubs like 1860 Munich, FC Kaiserslautern & Hamburger SV. We examine their Bundesliga years, the drama of relegation, financial woes, ownership battles, and the long roads—sometimes upward, sometimes downward—since their fall from grace.

Where are they now? What went wrong? Could they come back?

A Gem!

I adored “Lost Giants.” The writing is gorgeous. The author explains that the “giants were never truly lost. They were just waiting to be remembered.” This encomium captures sports for me.

Please accept that the computer-generated narrator is not perfect. But few narrators are. Because I am dyslexic, if the book wasn’t available in audio, I would never have been able to enjoy it. And that would have been a shame. So, if the economics of publishing make this narration necessary, then fine. Moreover, for the vast majority of the work, I didn’t even notice it (except perhaps for “the second … Bundesliga).

This is indeed a gem. I just started the Premier League version. I love it already.