Europe’s sleeping giants: Bursaspor, Dresden and Wednesday lead the revival watch
Published: 2026-09-12 00:00:00
History, crowds and a route back to the top
European football has seen fallen powers such as Deportivo, Parma and Hamburg return to their countries’ top flights. But plenty of historic clubs remain below the elite, and a BBC ranking has assessed potential sleeping giants by weighing former success alongside their fanbases, stadiums and local reach.
The ranking excludes clubs whose glory is too recent, or whose legacy and current support are difficult to separate. In the portion of the list available, Turkish champions Bursaspor sit 10th, followed by Dynamo Dresden, Kaiserslautern, Sheffield Wednesday and Hertha BSC. Bordeaux is introduced at number five, with the article excerpt listing six league titles and seven domestic cups.
Bursaspor’s rapid climb after a historic title
Bursaspor’s 2009-10 league triumph made them only the second club from outside Istanbul to win Turkey’s title, and the first since Trabzonspor nearly three decades earlier. The achievement brought Champions League meetings with Manchester United and Rangers. The club then fell as far as Turkey’s fourth tier in 2024, but has since climbed back to the second division. Its 43,361-capacity, crocodile-shaped stadium and home city of Bursa, with a population of about 2.5 million, underpin the club’s ambitions of returning to the Super Lig.
Dresden and Kaiserslautern still draw big crowds
Dynamo Dresden, ninth in the ranking, won eight East German league titles and seven cups. They joined the Bundesliga after German reunification, but relegation and mounting debts sent them down the divisions. Now back in the 2. Bundesliga, the club’s support remains a major asset: the BBC says average home attendance topped 30,000 in the previous second-tier season. The report also notes the club’s European history, including a 1976 UEFA Cup loss to Liverpool and a European Cup defeat two seasons later.
Kaiserslautern are eighth, with four league titles and a memorable 1997-98 Bundesliga championship campaign: they remain the only club to win the title immediately after promotion. After a spell in the third tier, they returned to the 2. Bundesliga in 2022. Their average crowds exceed 46,000, and they reached the 2024 German Cup final before losing to Bayer Leverkusen.
Sheffield Wednesday and Hertha retain substantial potential
Sheffield Wednesday are seventh, ahead of city rivals Sheffield United in the ranking on heritage. The Owls have four league titles, although their most recent came in 1929-30, and won the League Cup in 1991. After administration and relegation, the club dropped into League One; a US consortium bought it in May, giving supporters fresh hope. Hillsborough, with a capacity of 39,732, remains one of the country’s major club grounds.
Hertha BSC, ranked sixth, have spent four consecutive seasons outside Germany’s top division but continue to play at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, which holds 74,475, and regularly attract crowds above 50,000. The BBC points to the scale of Berlin’s talent pool and the club’s potential to draw on it, while noting that Hertha’s two league titles pre-date the Bundesliga era. A new stadium on the Olympic Park site is also under consideration.
The ranking’s case is not simply about trophy counts. It argues that stadium scale, a committed following and the size of a club’s city can all help turn former prominence into a realistic return to the top flight.
