2000-2007 The post-MV return to success

Due to high debts and the lack of results, Gerhard Mayer-VorfelderDFB, UEFAFIFA. New president Manfred Haas had to renegotiate expensive contracts with players that seldom appeared on the field anyway. As in 1976, when MV had taken over, the team had to be rebuilt by relying on talents from the youth teams. The VfB has one of Germany's most successful programs in the de:Deutsche Jugendmeisterschaft (Fußball). and finally resigned from VfB in 2000 to take over offices at

With players like Andreas Hinkel, Kevin Kurányi, Timo Hildebrand or Alexander Hleb earning themselves the nickname the young and wild, the club soon re-bounded and finished as Bundesliga vice-champions in the 2002-03 season. This qualified VfB for their second Champions League appearance and, beating Manchester United and Rangers F.C. once and Panathinaikos Athens twice, they advanced out of group play to the first knock out round where they were eliminated by their old nemesis Chelsea F.C. (0:1 and 0:0) (see also UEFA Champions League 2003-04).

Halfway through the disappointing 2005-06 season, Giovanni Trappatoni was sacked and replaced by Armin Veh. The new coach was designated as a stop-gap due to having resigned from FC Hansa Rostock in 2003 to focus on his family and having no football job since 2004 except coaching his home team FC Augsburg for a season. Supported by new manager Horst Heldt, Veh could establish himself and his concept of focussing on promising inexpensive players rather than established stars. Team captain Zvonimir Soldo retired, and other veterans left the team that slipped to ninth place and did not qualify for European competition for the first time in four years.

Despite early-season losses and ensuing criticism, Veh managed to turn the collection of new players like Mexican Pavel Pardo and Brazilian Antônio da Silva and fresh local talents, including Mario Gomez, Serdar Tasci and Sami Khedira, into a strong contender that lead the league on 12 November 2006 for the first time in two years. Stuttgart established themselves among the top five and delivered a strong challenge for the Bundesliga title by winning their final eight games. In the penultimate week on 12 May 2007, Stuttgart beat Bochum 3-2 away from home, took the Bundesliga lead from FC Schalke 04 and secured a spot in the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League. After trailing 0-1 in the final match of the season against Energie Cottbus, Stuttgart came back to win 2-1 and claim their first Bundesliga title in 15 years. The victory celebrations even topped those of Germany's third place in the 2006 World Cup a year ago.

VfB Stuttgart a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. With 31,082 members (14 December 2006), VfB is the seventh largest sports club in Germany and the largest in Baden-Württemberg. The club is best known for its footballteamBundesliga seasons, and has won the national championship which has participated in all but two five times in total.

The football team plays its home games at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, situated in the Cannstatter Wasen sports complex.

In addition to the successes of the professional, amateur and youth football teams, athletes from the club's athletics department have won numerous titles and medals. The club also has departments for fistball, hockey, table-tennis and football referees. These five departments only compete at amateur level. The club also maintains a social department, the VfB-Garde.