Fan blog: Learning to suffer

By Joerg Buddenberg

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BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- This blog is for those that love to suffer; for those who live in the hope everything will be better one day, but who must realize, each weekend, that it only gets worse: this is the agony you carry with you from day to day.

When you don't think about it and accept your miserable situation, suddenly the world changes. You get carried away on a wave of harmony and happiness, nothing can harm you; you are simply the best.

These are moments in the life of a fan of Fortuna Duesseldorf, a third league German team that competed in the premiere league a long, long time ago.....

I am sure we can exchange the name Fortuna Duesseldorf with any other football team in the world; we football fans must all feel the same. Sure, my team gives me one of the hardest nuts to crack, but I'm sure it's a familiar story.

What do you know about Fortuna Duesseldorf?

Don't you remember the glorious time of Klaus and Thomas Allofs, Egon Koehnen, Gerd Zewe, Rudi Bommer? I'm sure you remember the Euro Cup Final in May 1979, when Fortuna played FC Barcelona in Basel. The biggest moment in European football history for a Fortuna fan.

A great team in the 70s and 80s, ranked top in Germany's Bundesliga -- Bayern Munich were afraid to play in Duesseldorf after losing to us with the historic score-line 7:1 -- and for the eldest of us, Fortuna were German champions in 1933.

Football is like the economy: there are good times and there are bad times. And Fortuna love to follow this rule. After the highs of the 80s, Fortuna consistently made their way down the leagues, exploring what it's like to be one of the less successful German clubs.

Today they play in Germany's 3rd league. This isn't as bad as it has been, though: they've played worse and even competed in the 4th league for some time.

But now everything is going to be better. Fortuna are very ambitious; Fortuna want to be back in professional football. They have a brand new arena, old stars in the team (Joerg Albertz from Glasgow Rangers) and, this winter, they even had the sweet smell of success when they were achieved a position which could have allowed them to go back into professional football.

Fortuna means luck, but it's luck in name rather than in game. The season is almost over and the dream to be back in professional football is over.

Every once in a while I will report from an ambitious German team on its way back -- its way back to the European Champions League!

A lot will happen in the meanwhile and I am sure, as my team goes through it all you will discover something similar at your dream team, wherever you are in the world.

Let's suffer together...

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Fortuna's upcoming fixtures:

19th May -- Hamburger SV II (H)
26th May -- Holsten Kiel (A)
2nd June -- Borussia M'gladbach II (H)

Regionalliga Nord (III) Table

1. FC St. Pauli P33 W16 D10 L7 Points 58
2. 1. FC Magdeburg P33 W16 D10 L7 Points 58
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3. Kickers Emden P33 W14 D11 L8 Points 53
4. VfL Osnabrück P33 W14 D10 L9 Points 52
5. Hamburger SV II P33 W14 D10 L9 Points 52
6. Dynamo Dresden P33 W15 D6 L12 Points 51
7. Wuppertaler SV P33 W14 D9 L10 Points 51
8. Rot-Weiß Erfurt P33 W13 D10 L10 Points 49
9. Rot-Weiß Ahlen P34 W13 D9 L12 Points 48
10. Union Berlin P33 W13 D7 L13 Points 46
11. Werder Bremen II P34 W13 D7 L14 Points 46
12. Fortuna Düsseldorf P33 W11 D12 L10 Points 45
13. VfB Lübeck P33 W13 D5 L15 Points 44
14. Holstein Kiel P33 W11 D9 L13 Points 42
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15. Borussia Dortmund II P33 W12 D5 L16 Points 41
16. Bayer Leverkusen II P33 W8 D9 L16 Points 33
17. Borussia M'gladbach II P33 W8 D8 L17 Points 32
18. Hertha BSC Berlin II P34 W8 D8 L18 Points 32
19. SV Wilhelmshaven P33 W7 D9 L17 Points 30

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