The GAK celebrates on Saturday

The Plate Festival is still about the top scorer crown

Champions! Promotion! The GAK players will celebrate once again at the end of the season in the Merkur Arena.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

The league record falls at the "Tellerfest"! With 7099 visitors, the newly crowned second division champions GAK set a new record in their last home game against Horn - this record will be broken on Saturday (17:30) at the Reds' season finale against Kapfenberg: 8300 tickets have been sold! The red camp is eager to push Daniel Maderner to become the top scorer.

The red camp mobilizes! At 12 noon, the "Rote Kurve" meets at Freiheitsplatz (where a champions' party will also take place from 9 pm, as a kind of prelude to the champions' party on Wednesday in Weinzödl) and marches as one to the Merkur Arena. There, Daniel Maderner (best player of the season), Jakob Meierhofer (best goalkeeper) and Gernot Messner (best coach) will be honored by the Bundesliga, as well as former GAK players from 1st grade, women and youth. Before the presentation of the championship shield, sports director Didi Elsneg wants to enjoy the last dance in sporting terms: "As an ex-Kapfenberg player, I'm naturally delighted that Kapfenberg has already been saved."

GAK captain Marco Perchtold will remain on board in the Bundesliga.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

For the fans, it means saying goodbye to players such as Jastremski, Mayer, Eloshvili, Köchl and Jager - but the 35-year-old captain and boss of the dressing room will remain on board in the Bundesliga: The extension of Marco Perchtold, who made his first Bundesliga appearance for GAK (240 games in total) on December 9, 2006, is in the bag.

Daniel Maderner is still fighting for the top scorer crown.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

For Daniel Maderner it's all about the icing on the cake - the team wants to make him the league's top scorer: Dario Tadic is on 16 goals, Deni Alar on 15, Maderner has 14 "because I've had one disallowed". If it turns out to be the top scorer, that would be nice for him: "But to be honest, the only thing that counts for me is promotion! You have to bear in mind that this is my comeback season after tearing my cruciate ligament. I never expected my plan to work out so successfully, that I could play a leading role at GAK and shoot the club into the Bundesliga."

Of course, after the title, which the squad will celebrate together on Mallorca, he's already fired up for the top flight: "This will be the first Bundesliga season for many of our team and after 17 years of absence, the fans are euphoric, spurring us on to give it our all. We're already looking forward to the derbies."