The modern-day club was formed in 1945, when gymnastics club
Turnverein Hoffenheim (founded 1 July 1899) and football club
Fußballverein Hoffenheim (founded 1921) merged. At the beginning of the 1990s, the club was a local amateur side playing in the eighth division Baden-Württemberg A-Liga. They steadily improved and by 1996 were competing in the
Verbandsliga Nordbaden (V). Around 2000, alumnus
Dietmar Hopp returned to the club of his youth as a financial backer. Hopp was the co-founder of software firm
SAP and he put some of his money into the club. His contributions generated almost immediate results: in 2000 Hoffenheim finished first in the Verbandsliga and was promoted to the fourth-tier
Oberliga Baden-Württemberg. Another first-place finish moved the club up to the
Regionalliga Süd (III) for the 2001–02 season. They finished 13th in their first season in the Regionalliga, but improved significantly the next year, earning a fifth-place result. Hoffenheim earned fifth and seventh-place finishes in the next two seasons, before improving to fourth in 2005–06 to earn their best result to date. The club made its first
DFB-Pokal appearance in the
2003–04 competition and performed well, advancing to the quarter-finals by eliminating
2. Bundesliga sides
Eintracht Trier and
Karlsruher SC and
Bundesliga club
Bayer Leverkusen before being put out themselves by another 2. Bundesliga side,
VfB Lübeck. Negotiations to merge TSG Hoffenheim,
Astoria Walldorf, and
SV Sandhausen to create
FC Heidelberg 06 in 2005 were abandoned due to the resistance of the latter two clubs, and the failure to agree on whether the new side's stadium should be located in
Heidelberg or
Eppelheim. Team owner Hopp preferred Heidelberg, but could not overcome the resistance of local firm
Wild, which had already reserved the site of the planned stadium for its new production facilities.
2006–2008: Major investments, promotion to the Bundesliga In 2006, the club sought to improve its squad and technical staff by bringing in players with several years of Bundesliga experience, most notably
Jochen Seitz and
Tomislav Marić, and young talents like
Sejad Salihović, while signing manager
Ralf Rangnick, who managed Bundesliga teams such as
SSV Ulm 1846,
VfB Stuttgart,
Hannover 96 and
Schalke 04, to a five-year contract. The investment paid off in the 2006–07 season with the club's promotion to the 2. Bundesliga after finishing second in
Regionalliga Süd. The
2007–08 season was Hoffenheim's first season in professional football. After a weak start with three losses and only one draw in the first four games, the team's performance improved remarkably and Hoffenheim climbed from 16th place on matchday four to second place on matchday 23. The team defended their place until the end of the season, having scored 60 points after matchday 34. As a result of their second-place finish, they received automatic promotion to the Bundesliga, the highest tier in German football, after playing in the 2. Bundesliga for just one season.
2008–present: Growth of the club and Champions League football Hoffenheim recorded a 7th-place finish in their debut
season in the
Bundesliga, Germany's top division. The club's best players of the season were
Vedad Ibišević and
Demba Ba, who scored 18 and 14 goals respectively. In the
2009–10 Bundesliga, the club had a less successful season, recording a finish outside of the top 10, finishing 11th. The club finished in consecutive 11th places for the next two seasons. In the
2012–13 Bundesliga, the club came very close to suffering relegation, after a 16th-place finish, meaning they would have to play in the
relegation play-offs to survive; the club went on to beat their opponents
Kaiserslautern by a scoreline of 5–2 on aggregate over
two legs, with
Roberto Firmino scoring two goals in the first leg. In the
2013–14 Bundesliga, the club had strange statistics; being the third best goalscoring team in the league, but also the worst defensive team, scoring 72 goals and conceding 70. The club's best goalscorer of the season, also their best assist provider, was Roberto Firmino, scoring 16 goals and providing 12 assists, with the player winning the
Bundesliga Breakthrough Player of the Season award. In the
2014–15 Bundesliga, the club came very close to qualifying for the Europa League, with just two points separating them from
Borussia Dortmund, who were in 7th place. Despite the 8th-place finish, Hoffenheim still had a
goal difference of −6 in the 2014–15 season. In the
2015–16 Bundesliga, the club once again came close to suffering relegation, with just one point separating them from the relegation play-offs. In the
2016–17 season, new coach
Julian Nagelsmann took over, beginning to recruit several new players, including
Andrej Kramarić,
Kerem Demirbay and
Sandro Wagner. Initially, the club struggled for form, with four draws in the first four games of the season, before a rise in form rose the club to 3rd place in the league by the end of October. On 4 April 2017, the club beat
Bayern Munich by a scoreline of 1–0, one of the most significant wins in the club's history. On 21 April 2017, the club confirmed that they would play European football next season following a 1–1 draw with
Köln. Following a 4th-place finish in the
2016–17 Bundesliga, Hoffenheim qualified for the
2017–18 UEFA Champions League. The club were drawn to play
six-time European champions
Liverpool in the
play-off round. The club lost the first leg by a scoreline of 1–2, before a 4–2 loss in the second leg confirmed Hoffenheim's elimination from the tournament, as the club lost 3–6 on aggregate. Due to their elimination from the play-off stages, the club would continue playing European football in the
Europa League group stages; however, the club were eliminated from the tournament as they would finish bottom in the group stage. In the
2017–18 Bundesliga season, Hoffenheim had a successful season, finishing third, automatically qualifying for the next year's Champions League. The
2018–19 season was disappointing for Hoffenheim, as they finished bottom of their Champions League group with only 3 draws and 3 losses whilst playing
Manchester City,
Lyon and
Shakhtar Donetsk. In the
Bundesliga, Hoffenheim finished in 9th place. The season's top scorer was
Andre Kramarić, with the Croatian netting 22 times in 37 appearances. Nagelsmann left the club to join RB Leipzig at the end of the season.
Alfred Schreuder, former assistant coach under Huub Stevens and Julian Nagelsmann was appointed as the new head coach. After one year
Sebastian Hoeneß became the new head coach, but he was released in May 2022.
André Breitenreiter took over as coach until February 2023 and was followed by
Pellegrino Matarazzo, who was dismissed in November 2024. ==Players==