Kaiserslautern suffered their worst season since the inception of the Bundesliga. A mere two years after coming within a point of winning the title, they were relegated in 16th place. Although they only lost 10 league games all season - as many as runners-up
Bayern Munich - they also only won 6 of those remaining 24 games, the second-worst in the division. There was a silver lining to this season, as Kaiserslautern won the DFB-Pokal for only the second time in their history, ensuring a sixth appearance in European competition in the past seven seasons.
Otto Rehhagel, recently ousted from Bayern Munich, was given the task of returning Kaiserslautern to the Bundesliga.
^Karaca was born in
Hofheim,
West Germany (now
Germany), but also qualified to represent
Turkey internationally and represented Turkey at
U-21 and B level.