Berliner AK 07

A club that truly missed their calling. They should changed their founding date to 1947 (or 1847) so they could be Berliner AK-47...

The club was founded in 1907, but has managed to remain completly obscure. They were mostly an athletic club, sponsoring the Berlin marathon among other things. (Well, actually it's not the famous race of today, but a "forerunner" of the current event. I'm guessing it was really a glorified pub crawl...) Soccer started in 1908, but they were beyond crap. It wasn't until 1991 that they started to even get noticed, and they marched from the Kreisliga-A into the Oberliga Nordost.

In 2004, the club merged with BSV Mitte, which had previously competed as BFC Güneyspor und Fenerbahce Berlin. This made it one of the so-called "German-Turkish multicultural clubs." This was reinforced further when in 2006 it began an association with the Turkish First Division club Ankaraspor. The idea was that the professional club would be able to train young players in the Berlin league, but it never came to fruition. In fact, it almost ruined the club.

Most of the old members left, and the remaining members decided to form a fully Turkish based club, Berlin Ankaraspor Kulübü 07. So although the abbreviation is the same, the old club was gone. even the traditional colors of red/white where replaced to blue/white, to represent Ankaraspor. However, as things turned out it was a a facade. Ankaraspor withdrew support, and BAK was left to their own resources. With no players, they were in trouble, but the 2007/08 turned out to be somewhat of a watershed. With help of several players from the A-Jugend (youth team), the club was able to stablize. A heroic effort, as they managed to just stave off relegation. The traditional colors were restored, and the club continued. Today, BAK is like any other German club, a mix of local and foreign players.

The reformed club started to get some decent results, and by winning the Berliner-Pilsen cup in 2010 (a 1-0 win against BFC Dynamo), BAK qualified for the 1st round of the DFB Cup. They drew Bundesliga club FSV Mainz, and gave a very brave account of themselves, losing only 2-1. This was probably the high-point of BAK football. However, greater things were soon to come...

In 2012, BAK had their greatest triumph: in the 1st round of the DFB-Pokal, they faced Bundesliga side TSG Hoffenheim, and came away with a crushing 4-0 win. This was the greatest disgrace of any Bundesligist in the history of the Cup!! (It also meant a bonus of 225,000 euros for the club, and the prospect of another big payday).