In January 2024, a new soccer league was launched in Germany with the Baller League – and with great success! The indoor soccer tournament for ambitious amateur footballers enters Season 2 in July.
What is the Baller League anyway, who is playing in Season 2, what special rules are there again and where are the games broadcast?
Here are the answers to the most important questions about the new amateur soccer league called Baller League: participants, teams, dates and schedule, the mode with the special rules as well as the live broadcast on ran, Joyn and Prosieben Maxx.
Baller League Schedule & Results – Matchday 8, 9.9.
The current Baller League table
What is the Baller League anyway?
The Baller League, founded by Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski, is an indoor small-sided league with two 20-minute matches. The game is played in a 6 vs. 6 format with its own rules.
The special feature: each team has a well-known sportsperson or a personality from the entertainment sector who is one of two team managers.
Motorworld in Cologne was chosen as the venue for the Baller League. All games take place in Lukas Podolski’s home town. The hangar there has space for a maximum of 4,000 visitors.
For Baller League 2024 Season 2, there were considerations to choose a different venue – with a slightly larger spectator capacity. In the end, however, they stayed in Cologne.
Streets United secured the title of the inaugural season after beating main round winners Calcio Berlin 7:5 in the final
Baller League Schedule – Season 2
Baller League 2024 Dates: The match schedule for Season 2
- Draft: July 15, 2024
- 1st matchday: July 22, 2024
- 2nd matchday: July 29, 2024
- 3rd matchday: August 5, 2024
- 4th matchday: August 12, 2024
- 5th matchday: August 19, 2024
- 6th matchday: August 26, 2024
- 7th matchday: September 2, 2024
- 8th matchday: September 9, 2024
- 9th matchday: September 16, 2024
- 10th matchday: September 23, 2024
- 11th matchday: September 30, 2024
- “Final Four” tournament: October 7, 2024
The Baller League Start 2024 for Season 2 is scheduled for Monday, July 22. Matchday 1 will take place on this day.
The other match days will follow in the following weeks on Mondays from 18:45.
The final day will take place on October 7, 2024 (Sunday). The semi-finals, the match for third place and the grand final will then take place on the Final 4 weekend.
However, the Final Four of the Baller League will not take place in Cologne, but in Düsseldorf, in the PSD Bank Dome.
Rules, mode, procedure
The league with 12 teams is played in the classic way. Each team plays against another team once. The top four teams in the final table take part in the final four tournament and play for the championship title.
Each match lasts two 15-minute periods with a five-minute break in between. The pitch is 50 x 29 meters, there are outlines and no boards. However, the game is played with offside (!).
The special thing about the new indoor league is the rules of the game. In addition to the usual rules, there will also be innovative differences to traditional (indoor) soccer.
There is no draw at the end, but a winner is determined in a shootout
- Teams: 11 with 11 players each (two wildcard players are possible per match day, so the teams can nominate (professional) footballers)
- Playing time: 2 x 15 minutes (+5 minutes half-time break)
- Pitch: 50 x 29 meters, no boards, with outlines
- Players on the field: 6 vs. 6
- Watch: is stopped at 17 minutes and 37 seconds for Wheel of Fortune
- Rule: there is one so-called “gamechanger” per half-time – a game-changing rule
- “3 corners penalty ” during the entire match: after 3 corners there is a penalty
- “+1”: In the last three minutes, both teams start with 1 vs. 1, with each goal both teams are replenished by one player each
Baller League teams, participants & players: Who is taking part?
Since the announcement of the new small-sided league, there have been repeated rumors about which players and celebrities will be taking part.
In addition to the team captains (e.g. athletes or well-known Twitch streamers), the teams also consist of semi-professionals, talented amateurs and other guest stars.
The secret of the Baller League 2024 players and participants has gradually been revealed. Which 12 teams are taking part in Season 2?
The Baller League teams & participants 2024
- Streets United with Lukas Podolski and Alisha Lehmann
- Käfigtiger FC with Kevin-Prince Boateng and Diyar Acar
- Las Ligas Ladies with Ana Maria Marković, and Selina Cerci
- Protatos with Lars and Lucas from “Brotatos”
- Hollywood United with Max Kruse and Knossi (Jens Knossalla)
- VfR Zimbos with Gamerbrother (Simon Schildgen) and Tisi Schubech (Simon Bechtold and Timo Schulz)
- Golden XI with Christoph Kramer and Florian Neuhaus
- Calcio Berlin with Calcio Berlin (Nico Heymer, Christoph Kröger and Niklas Levinsohn)
- Eintracht Spandau with Hans Sarpei and HandOfBlood (Maximilian Knabe aka Hänno)
- Beton Berlin with Kontra K and Felix Lobrecht
- FC Nitro with Nader Jindaoui
- Gönrgy Allstars with MontanaBlack (Marcel Eris) and UnsympathischTV (Sascha Hellinger)
There are some prominent names on the list of Baller League 2024 participants as so-called “team managers”. League founder Lukas Podolski will continue to manage the “Streets United” team with soccer starlet Alisha Lehmann.
Borussia professional Florian Neuhaus will be a permanent member of the “Golden XI” team and will coach alongside his teammate Christoph Kramer. Neuhaus was already frequently on site during the first season. Kramer’s previous manager partner, Croatian footballer Ana Markovic, is moving to the “Las Ligas Ladies”, where she will take over from Jule Brand alongside Selina Cerci.
In the second season, the Youtuber Trymacs will no longer be part of the team “Hardstuck Royal”. His place will be taken by Nader Jindaoui (a professional footballer, Youtuber and Tiktoker from Berlin), who will compete with “FC Nitro”.
There are also changes at the top of the Baller League. Co-founder Mats Hummels is leaving the project after the debut season.
The squad size has been increased from eight to twelve players. From this, the team managers and coaches can then nominate an eight-man matchday squad each week.
Another well-known Baller League 2024 participant and player is Hans Sarpei. The soccer cult figure leads the “Eintracht Spandau” team
The players & participants of the Baller League 2024
Who are the players selected in the 12 teams of the Baller League 2024 in the draft on January 15?
Here are all the players – who plays in which team? These names are known so far:
Streets United:
- Tyreece Herzhauser
- Manuel Fischer
- Gjorgji Antoski
- Alexander Heinze
- Kaan Gökcesin
- Christian März
- Mergim Fejzullahu
- Samir Neziri
- Cedric Mimbala
- Kevin Baltrusch
- Adrian Colon
- Steffen Wirtz
Cage Tiger:
- Joshua “Bilal” Sumbunu
- Marcel Jonetzko
- Tim Greven
- Georg Shkri
- Tugay Temel
- Yusef Keshta
- Yousef Emghames
- Samir Malaab
- Damir Kurtovic
- Denis Neumann
- Leon Burggraf
- Christoph Thies
Las Ligas Ladies:
- Lukas Raeder
- Leo Camara
- Dennis Eck
- Julien Vercauteren
- Tim Hintzen
- Alessandro Tomasello
- Harouna Boubacar
- Ilias Annan
- Koray Dag
- Luis Pedro Cavanda
- Kasim Uslu Naoufal Boumina
Protatos:
- Max Wilschrey
- Abdenbi Oubelkhiri
- Florian Schöller
- Mohamed Rabia
- Mario Zelic
- Sinan Kurt
- Felix Bastians
- Selim Gündüz
- Edison Mazreku
- Jeffrey Malscherek
- Leonardo dos Santos
- Kemal Eren
Hollywood United:
- Nicolas Westerhoff
- Jannis Becker
- Jan-Philipp Schmitz
- Zachary Bonsu
- Steven Kodra
- Tim Klefisch
- Sören Diekmann
- Maurice Pluntke
- Nuredin Ali Khan
- Yannick Marko
- Ibrahim Hajri
- Can Serdar
VfR Zimbos:
- Mo Loum
- Babacar M’Bengue
- Philipp Simon
- Bilal Abdallah
- Youn Czekanowicz
- Marco Terrazzino
- Emre Demircan
- Eduard Renke
- Stefan Inthal
- Alan Stulin
- Niklas Valerius
- Said Harouz
Golden XI:
- Dario Bezzera
- Tobias Heitz
- Eren Emirgan
- Marc Rzatkowski
- Justin Neiß
- Dominik Wüst
- Joshua Holtby
- Bruno Staudt
- Philipp Meißner
- Nick Hirschfeld
- Jonas Telschow
- Luca Beerman
Calcio Berlin:
- Kevin Weggen
- Meik Kühnel
- Giuliano Zimmerling
- Yazid Tambo
- Dylan Bos
- Tino Arp
- Yassine Ali Gnondi
- Aram Abdelkarim
- Hagen Blohm
- Berkan Celebi
- Kenan Smajlovic
- Marvin Boachie
Eintracht Spandau:
- Marco Cirillo
- Sangar Aziz
- Andreas Volk
- Luki Matondo
- Justin Sauermilch
- Sezer Toy
- Emre Yesilova
- Benjamin Bußmann
- Kerem Sengün
- Ali Hammoud
- Adrian Asani
- Enis Küley
Beton Berlin:
- Berkan Firat
- Dustin Zahnen
- Finn Hinze
- Terry Danso
- Patrick Schönfeld
- Marco Metzger
- Maximilian Beister
- Ömer Akman
- Serdar Bingöl
- Mustapha Chahrour
- Andre Fliess
- Max Wissmann
FC Nitro:
- Tim Sulmer
- Jan Fauseweh
- Malek Amdouni
- Pascal Itter
- Sascha Marinkovic
- Nico Brandenburger
- Amir Ahmadi
- Hayrullah Alici
- Jan Muzangu
- Mehmet Kaya
- Amed Öncel
- Paul Strauss
Gönrgy Allstars:
- Niklas Reichel
- Okan Dönmez
- Leandro Fünfsinn
- Pascal El-Nemr
- Marwin Ailiesei
- Niklas Dams
- Nils da Costa Pereira
- Dominik Reinhold
- Thomas Haas
- Turgay Akbulut
- Elias Römers
- Yannick Zierden
Baller League broadcast: Who broadcasts the games?
As revolutionary as the Baller League is supposed to be, the Baller League is broadcast in the traditional way on TV. At least in part.
ran broadcasts the Baller League every Monday from 4 p.m. in full length via stream in the free Joyn app. ProSieben MAXX also broadcasts the top game live on free TV every Monday from 8:15 pm to 9:30 pm.
Of course, the top match can also be seen on Joyn or in the livestream on ran.de and in the ran app.
Joyn Content Manager Thomas Münzner adds: “The ‘Baller League’ is a completely new kind of soccer. Intense, innovative and interactive. The combination of high-quality sport and the streaming world is perfect for Joyn. We are delighted to be working with ProSieben MAXX to provide media support for the new soccer streamer league right from the start.”
“Eleven times live soccer in prime time. We are rolling out the green carpet for the ‘Baller League’ on ProSieben MAXX and are looking forward to exciting soccer evenings in this completely new style and form,” says ProSieben MAXX station manager Ellen Koch.
Are tickets available for the Baller League?
There is a lot of interest in the new small-sided league. One question remains: Are there tickets for the Baller League 2024?
The answer is “yes”, but with one caveat: Baller League tickets are not for sale, they can only be won!
XING is giving away 5×2 exclusive tickets per match day. All information can be found here: Baller League Tickets.
Who else is involved in the Hummels/Podolski project?
Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski are the two faces and figureheads of the new indoor league. Behind them is a team from a wide variety of areas, which are to promote and establish the brand.
Co-founder Felix Strack revealed: “The Baller League brings the football pitch and the rules of the street into a league system. We want to get back to the roots – honest, fast and exciting soccer. The way you want soccer to be and the way it used to be – unpredictable”.
Co-founder Thomas de Buhr adds: “The Baller League is for everyone, anyone can apply now and try to get one of the coveted places in the 12 teams. ”
