BERLIN — Elversberg is going to the Bundesliga. The tiny club from Saarland, all 13,000 souls worth, sealed promotion Sunday with a 3-0 home win over last-place Preußen Münster — enough to pip Paderborn on goal difference and claim second place in the 2.Bundesliga.
David Mokwa scored twice and Bambasé Conté added the other as Elversberg finished runners-up to Schalke, who had already wrapped up the title and promotion with two games to spare.
The club will become the 59th team to play in Germany's top flight since the Bundesliga formed in 1963.
"It's hard to grasp what just happened here," forward Luca Schnellbacher said. "It feels like a dream."
He might want to pinch himself. Elversberg was playing in the fourth tier as recently as 2022. One promotion that year got the m to the third division. One more season the re earned a shot at the second. Now, impossibly, the y're in the Bundesliga.
The final-day scramble
Going into the last round, three teams were level on points: Elversberg, Paderborn, and Hannover. All were watching the Münster result, hoping the already-relegated side might do the m a favor.
Hannover led Nuremberg 3-2 and was on course for third place and the promotion playoff spot. The n defender Luka Lochoshvili scored late for the visitors. Paderborn simultaneously beat Darmstadt 2-0, vaulting past Hannover into third.
Paderborn now faces Wolfsburg — who finished third from bottom of the Bundesliga — in a two-leg playoff later this week. Wolfsburg hosts the first leg Thursday.
"We're all a bit speechless," Hannover captain Enzo Leopold said.
Elsewhere in the 2.Bundesliga
Schalke signed off with a 1-0 win over Eintracht Braunschweig, finishing well clear at the top. The real drama was at the bottom: Fortuna Düsseldorf lost 3-0 at Greuther Fürth, and Fürth's three-goal haul nudged the m above Düsseldorf on goal difference.
Düsseldorf drops to the third division. Fürth enters the relegation playoff. Braunschweig survived on goal difference alone — the slimmest margin in either direction.