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SV Darmstadt

Heartbreak#4634.7

Darmstadt, Frankfurt · Germany · Bundesliga

Power-ranking history

Hover a season for its rank and score
Rank (1 = best)1681Score (per-season normalised)0.00.51.079/8084/8589/9094/9599/0004/0509/1014/1519/20

Against expectation

Every German top-flight match this club has played in the Bundesliga, scored against the odds an Elo rating gave it before kick-off. Over 5 seasons from 1978-79 to 2023-24 it has fallen short of them by 16.3 match points.

SV Darmstadt 98: surplus against expectation, 1978-79 to 2023-241978-79: −6.2 league points vs expected (21 on 27.2, 2 for a win) · bar height −3.1 match points1981-82: −5.2 league points vs expected (21 on 26.2, 2 for a win) · bar height −2.6 match points2015-16: −3.9 league points vs expected (38 on 41.9, 3 for a win) · bar height −0.8 match points2016-17: −10.1 league points vs expected (25 on 35.1, 3 for a win) · bar height −4.0 match points2023-24: −17.1 league points vs expected (17 on 34.1, 3 for a win) · bar height −5.7 match points
1978-79one bar per season · height in match points · hover for that season2023-24
Best season against expectation
2015-16 3.9 league pts
38 points on 41.9 expected as SV Darmstadt 98
Worst season against expectation
2023-24 17.1 league pts
17 points on 34.1 expected as SV Darmstadt 98

Season points use that season’s own scoring, two for a win before 1995-96 and three from it; the bars use match points so the whole series is comparable.

Frankfurt against expectation →How this is measured →

What the squad was worth

Total market value of the squad, EUR millions, by month; the player count beside it is the size of the priced squad.

How this is measured

Drawn as a step, not a curve: Transfermarkt reprices every squad in December and June (marked with a small tick on the axis) and revalues continuously between, so the line only moves when a real valuation changed, never by interpolation.

A month renders no value at all once the priced squad falls below 15 players, so a thin squad is never shown as a cheap one. The series is floored at July 2012on purpose: earlier Transfermarkt totals reflect which players happened to be priced yet rather than the squad’s real worth, and are excluded rather than shown misleadingly low.

Upstream (dcaribou/transfermarkt-datasets) has been paused since July 2026, so the series ends where the source ends rather than where the season does.

Player valuations from Transfermarkt via github.com/dcaribou/transfermarkt-datasets (CC0).

What the squad was worth€32m
SV Darmstadt 98: squad value by month, 2014-07 to 2025-110224514-1516-1718-1920-2122-2324-25
Peak
€42m in Dec 2023 · 30 players valued
Most recent
€32m in Nov 2025 · 22 players valued

Frankfurton the rankings →

The money ledger

Fees paid and received each season, and what the squad was worth once the trading is netted out.

How this is measured

Spent is the fees paid for players arriving, received the fees for players leaving, both in EUR millions by the July-to-June season of the move. A move with no fee on record (a free, a loan, an undisclosed sum) is counted, never priced: the small figure beside each total is the moves with a fee, plus those without (so 4+3 is four priced arrivals and three unpriced), and a quiet window is not mistaken for a cheap one. Wages are not here: they are estimates nobody licenses, and fees are documented.

Appreciationis the season’s change in squad value with the net spend taken out: buy 100m of players and finish 100m higher is zero; finish 120m higher and the club made 20m of players better, or the market repriced them. It needs a priced squad at both ends of the season (the same 15-player floor as the value chart), so it is blank rather than guessed for a season that lacks one.

The source has been paused since 6 July 2026, so the final row holds only the opening days of its window.

Transfer fees and player valuations from Transfermarkt via github.com/dcaribou/transfermarkt-datasets (CC0).

The money ledger+€4m
Spent
€13m
19 arrivals with a fee
Received
€17m
10 departures with a fee
Net
+€4m
96 moves with no fee
Appreciation
+€29m
11 seasons with a priced squad

Grown or bought: in 2026-27, trading +€4m and appreciation . Over the last 5 seasons (2022-232026-27), trading +€4m and appreciation unpriced.

The director’s ledger: 29 arrivals graded since 2022-23, 97% EV-positive. €8m deployed for a 1.7× multiplier.

2026-27 spent received €4mto 6 July 2026
out: Isac Lidberg €4m
unpriced
2025-26 spent €0m received €3m
in: Leon Klassen €0m
unpriced
2024-25 spent €1m received €4m
in: Isac Lidberg €1m
−€4m
squad gain
2023-24 spent €4m received €2m
in: Christoph Klarer €2m
+€9m
squad gain
2022-23 spent €3m received
in: Filip Stojilkovic €2m
+€6m
squad gain
2021-22 spent €0m received €1m
in: André Leipold €0m
+€5m
squad gain
2020-21 spent received €1m
out: Seung-ho Paik €1m
+€3m
squad gain
2019-20 spent €2m received €1m
in: Mathias Honsak €1m
−€2m
squad gain
Show all 13 seasons
2018-19 spent €1m received
in: Serdar Dursun €0m
−€4m
squad gain
2017-18 spent €1m received €2m
in: Tobias Kempe €1m
−€4m
squad gain
2016-17 spent €0m received
in: Michael Esser €0m
+€2m
squad gain
2015-16 spent €1m received
in: Fabian Holland €1m
+€11m
squad gain
2014-15 spent received
4 moves, no fee on record
+€5m
squad gain

Money against football

Every priced club-season in the six leagues: points against expectation across, squad value gained beyond the net spend up. This club’s seasons are joined.

Tap or drag on the plot: the nearest club-season, its points and its money.

the frontier: no other club-season beat it on both axes · this club, season by season, the largest dot the latest

Every club’s return on the transfer window →

Greatest games

SV Darmstadt's top matches by the club Game Score: closeness, stakes, quality and upset over one unified rating of league and European play.All-time board.

#DateStageResultScore
12001-12-12DFB-Pokal · Round of 16HL 0-1 v FC Schalke 04game score 53.0
21979-06-02BundesligaAW 2-1 v VfL Bochumgame score 51.3
32016-04-30BundesligaHL 1-2 v Eintracht Frankfurtgame score 50.8
42017-04-22BundesligaAW 2-1 v Hamburger SVgame score 50.7
52017-04-16BundesligaHW 2-1 v FC Schalke 04game score 49.8
62016-05-07BundesligaAW 2-1 v Hertha BSC Berlingame score 48.6
72015-12-15DFB-Pokal · Third RoundAL 0-1 v Bayern Munichgame score 47.4
82001-11-28DFB-Pokal · Second RoundHD 3-3 v SC Freiburg(pens 1 / 3)game score 47.0
92022-10-18DFB-Pokal · Second RoundHW 2-1 v Borussia Mönchengladbachgame score 46.7
102016-04-09BundesligaAW 2-1 v Hamburger SVgame score 46.3

Footprint

Tiers played
L1
Top-flight (L1) seasons
5
First season
1979
Most recent season
2024

The Heartbreak Index4.7 · #463

The Tortured · Never won it, waiting since 1979

4.7
Heartbreak
#463
of 1,139 clubs
#297
in Football
4.7
agony
The clocks
  • First major trophy since 19796.3
Heaviest wounds

relegated from the top flight, 2017 · relegated from the top flight, 2024 · relegated from the top flight, 1979 · relegated from the top flight, 1982

One formula, every club the site covers. See the whole board →

Season-by-season

Most recent season first. Covers Bundesliga only. Rows tagged "national playoff" are pre-modern formats where the workbook records only playoff participants, not round-robin standings.

2024
Bundesliga (1) · P18
34 P · 3-8-23 · 30:86 · -56
17
pts
2017
Bundesliga (1) · P18
34 P · 7-4-23 · 28:63 · -35
25
pts
2016
Bundesliga (1) · P14
34 P · 9-11-14 · 38:53 · -15
38
pts
1982
Bundesliga (1) · P17
34 P · 5-11-18 · 46:82 · -36
21
pts
1979
Bundesliga (1) · P18
34 P · 7-7-20 · 40:75 · -35
21
pts