Stuttgart Surge

The Stuttgart Surge are a professional American football team based in Stuttgart, Germany. The Surge compete in the European League of Football (ELF) as a member of the West division. The club entered the ELF as an inaugural member in 2021. In 2021, they competed in the South Conference. From 2022 to 2024, Stuttgart was assigned to the Central Conference; the team joined the West division in 2025. They have played their home games at the Gazi Stadion (full name with sponsor Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau) which is currently the oldest sports stadium in Germany still in use.

The Surge have won three division titles and played in two ELF championship game, having lost to the Rhein Fire, 34–53 at the 2023 ELF Championship Game and having won the 2025 ELF Championship Game against the Vienna Vikings.

The Stuttgart franchise is one of the eight founding members of the European League of Football (ELF), established in 2020. Initially, the franchise was supposed to start as the Stuttgart Scorpions, adopting the name of Stuttgart's German Football League (GFL) team. Since the member's assembly of the Stuttgart Scorpions decided to disallow the use of the name, the team formed as Stuttgart Surge reviving the World League of American Football (WLAF) "Surge" franchise of the 1992 World Bowl champion Sacramento Surge. The World League of American Football was later renamed the NFL Europe. The label Surge was picked over the name Stallions in compliance of the former 1980s and 1990s American football team Stuttgart Stallions and determines the design of the new club logo and ensign. The franchise is operated by the American Football Club Stuttgart GmbH, whose general manager Timo Franke previously worked as gameday manager for the Stuttgart Scorpions. Martin Hanselmann, the former coach of Germany's national American football team was signed as head coach in 2021.

The team played their first game in the new league against the Barcelona Dragons (ELF) on June 19, 2021, with a 17–21 victory. In their week 2 loss to Frankfurt Galaxy starting Quarterback Jacob Wright was ejected for using a racially charged insult against an opponent for which he was ultimately cut from Stuttgart Surge and banned from playing for any ELF team for the ongoing 2021 season. The new Quarterback Aaron Ellis was presented ahead of the week 3 matchup against Berlin Thunder (ELF). After two consecutive losses during the end of the season, the team finished last in the South division and did not qualify for the playoffs.

The front office and owner structure changed significantly in preparation for the 2022 European League of Football season. Former general manager Timo Franke handed the office over to Suni Musa, but staying in the organisation as head of sales and sponsoring. On February 4, 2022, it was revealed that New England Patriots fullback and Stuttgart native Jakob Johnson will become co-owner of the franchise.

After seven consecutive defeats, Martin Hanselmann resigned from his post as head coach. His interim successor was George Streeter. However, the team could not increase noticeably and ended the season without a win. After the season, Streeter became Director of Player Personnel and Development.

On October 18, 2022, Surge signed Jordan Neuman as new Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator. Neuman previously was head coach of the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, and won the German Bowl 2022. Along with him, defensive coordinator Johannes Brenner and assistant Cody Pastorino joined from the Unicorns. The new coaches led the team to a 10-2 record. Surge won the Wild Card game vs Panthers Wrocław with 37-14, and the semi final at the Vienna Vikings with 40-33. In the ELF championship game, Surge faced Rhein Fire, but lost the game with 34-53.

TV tower and Stadion auf der Waldau

With the presentation of the new team name in 2021, the franchise unveiled two logos for their first season. The design of the major logo uses the form of the Stuttgart TV tower which is located near the stadium. It is both a landmark for the town as well as for the region. The logo features the team colors yellow and blue with the tower shaft and the antenna depicting a stylized lightning bolt. The tower basket features the team name in white on a dark ground. The minor logo just shows a stylized lightning bolt in yellow pointing to the right and features optionally the team name or a multiangled line, both in a dark color.

Reference

 0 Tomiwa Oyewo  2 Kai Hunter 22 Albert Wiesigstrauch 35 Micah McCullough 41 Bryan Yankson 43 León Helm FB Wide receivers

 3 Mike Harley Jr.
 7 Louis Geyer  8 Leonell Fritzen 10 Florian Lengauer 11 Emil Rabin 14 Timon Stüwe 17 Daniel Pedro 18 Aurieus Minton 81 Jan Pietsch Tight ends

40 Giacomo De Pauli 80 Philip Eichhorn 85 Roberto Miranda | | Offensive linemen 50 Marvin Biegert C 55 Alessandro Vergani G 57 Marlon Werthmann T 61 Luca Jokiel T 66 Sascha Beck C 67 Markos Dubravkic G 69 Emmanuel Häfele T 72 Tobias Braun T 74 Robert Hager T 75 Moritz Schreiber C 76 Lukas Maier G 78 Benhur Arya Defensive linemen

 6 Robert Lachmann DE 13 Chris Mulumba DE 52 Dominic Siegel DE 54 Alexander Kreß DE 60 Nathan Kalemba DT 70 Maximilian Dommermuth DT 90 Raphael Zistler DT 91 Sadik Busch DE 92 Simon Butsch DE 94 Berend Grube DE 97 Leander Strathmann DE | | Linebackers 25 Luis Leatherman MLB 26 Luca Siebert MLB 30 Lenno Reinhardt OLB 32 Luis Bach 39 Enis Kaser OLB 44 Maleka Japhet Mbala MLB 45 Lukas Levin MLB 47 Nikolas Knoblauch MLB 49 Felix Födinger OLB 51 Omar Dittrich MLB Defensive backs

 5 Konstantin Katz FS  9 Lasse Engel FS 12 Raheem Wilson CB 20 Sarrow Drammeh CB 21 Julian Jakob CB 23 Giuseppe Della Vecchia CB 24 Mitchel Fettig CB 27 Marko Vidačković FS 28 Thiago Siebert CB 29 Julian Ludwig-Mayorga 31 Nick Wenzelburger S 33 Ben Wenzler CB Special teams

38 Timo Bronn | | | | Rookies in italics Roster updated 2 June 2025 5 A-import, 5 E-import, 56 homegrown66 active |

Owner – Steffen Korinth, Erwin &Martin Schmidt, Jakob Johnson General Manager – Suni Musa Director of Player Personnel and Development – George Streeter Director of football operations/personnel – Jeremy Bryson Head coach

Head coach – Jordan Neuman Offensive coaches

Offensive coordinator – Jordan Neuman Quarterbacks – n/a Running backs – Joshua Tapscott Wide receivers – Joseph Joyner Tight ends/fullbacks – Jochen Holzinger Offensive line – Hunter Sims | | | Defensive coaches

Defensive coordinator – Johannes Brenner Assistant defensive coordinator – Cody Pastorino Linebacker – Daniel McCray Inside linebacker – David Zeller Defensive line – Justin Bernthaler Defensive backs – n/a Special teams coaches

Special teams coordinator – n/a Assistant coaches

Analytics coach – Friedemann Hees Strength and conditioning

Strength and conditioning – Natalia Wisniewska Head of Strength and conditioning – Corey Chapman

Staff updated 23 March 2023 |

• Official website