Bochum 2-0 Mainz, Ruhrstadion, Bochum
(Holtmann 21', Polter 56')

For any first-time visitors to the western German city of Bochum on Saturday, it wouldn't have been difficult to find the Ruhrstadion.

The Castroper Strasse, the famous road winding its way up to the historic home ground of VfL Bochum, was lined with blue and white bunting in the celebration of the club's return to the Bundesliga after 11 years ― or 4,123 days to be precise.

For the 12,548 Bochum fans in attendance against Mainz, it will have been worth the wait to witness Gerrit Holtmann's opening goal. Just as they had strolled up the blue and white Castroper Strasse, Holtmann set off on his own winding run through the visitors' defense.

When he picked up the ball, he was on the left wing. By the time he slotted it home beneath Robin Zentner, he was on the right-hand side of the six-yard-box, having left half the Mainz team trailing in his wake.

After a 0-1 defeat at Wolfsburg on the opening day, it was Bochum's first Bundesliga goal since May 1, 2010, and set them on their way to a historic 2-0 win. The stadium announcer at the Ruhrstadion immediately declared it to be the goal of the year, and it will certainly take some beating.

Bochum: a breath of fresh air

But not everybody was excited on this great day for Bochum. Amid a sea of blue replica shirts heading towards the turnstiles outside the Ruhrstadion, one fan stood motionless like an island in stormy waters.

Above his head, he held a cardboard sign reading: "Euros with 24 [teams], World Cup soon every two years with 48 [teams], Nations League, Conference League, UCL reforms, Super League, and thousands dead in Qatar. That's enough! Boycott professional football!"

In many ways, he couldn't have picked a more appropriate location for his one-man protest. Perhaps more than any other club in Germany, VfL Bochum, who spent just five seasons outside the Bundesliga between 1971 and 2010, encapsulate a vision of football which is under threat from the most grievous commercial excesses of modern football.

The Ruhrstadion, with its iconic concrete exterior, four towering floodlights and steep, quadratic stands, is a dying breed. In contrast to the modern arenas which have appeared like spaceships on the edges of motorways outside cities across Europe, the Ruhrstadion is a football ground at the heart of the community it serves, just a 15-minute walk from the center of Bochum.

And VfL Bochum, who, along with the predecessor clubs, have played their home games on this patch of ground since 1911, are a community club. 

250 years of club loyalty

This week, German football magazine Kicker estimated that Bochum boast over 250 years of loyalty from employees across the club, from the coaching staff to the medical team to the scouting department to the groundskeeper.

Current head coach Thomas Reis made 199 appearances for Bochum as a player and has also trained the club's women's team and under-19 and reserve men's teams. Captain Anthony Losilla has been with the club since 2014 and the Frenchman's name is a common sight on the backs of the fans' replica jerseys.

Physios Sasa Zivanovic and Jürgen Dolls have been at the club for 27 and 22 years respectively, while even at board level, chairman Martin Kree, a Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund in 1997, made 164 league appearances for Bochum.

Unlike their more illustrious neighbours from nearby Dortmund or Gelsenkirchen, who covet support from all around the world, Bochum's support is largely drawn from the city of 364,000 nestled in between.

The cheers which greeted the news of Borussia Dortmund's defeat to Freiburg, and the rather uncomplimentary chants about Schalke after their defeat to Regensburg in the second division, demonstrated quite clearly where supporters' loyalties lie in Bochum.

Ahead of kickoff against Mainz, the whole stadium sang "happy birthday" to one of those supporters, seven-year-old Maria, who then proceeded to lead the stadium in a rendition of a club chant and predict a 2-1 win. 

Bochum hold on

She was almost right. Just before the hour-mark, striker Sebastian Polter doubled Bochum's lead, but Mainz, so impressive in their victory over RB Leipzig on the opening day despite having 11 players in quarantine, could find no way past goalkeeper Manuel Riemann.

And so, having been deprived of the chance to celebrate promotion last season due to the pandemic, Bochum fans heading back down the blue and white lined Castroper Strasse could celebrate the return of Bundesliga football to the Ruhrstadion with a historic victory.

In a modern football world dominated by Super Leagues, Nations Leagues, Conference Leagues and World Cups built on slavery and sportswashing, as highlighted by the one-man protest outside, that can only be a good thing.