Uli Hoeneß appreciates his close friend Jupp Heynckes exclusively at T-Online on his 80th birthday. And puts it over Pep Guardiola and Ottmar Hitzfeld.
This Friday, Jupp Heynckes, the triple trainer legend of FC Bayern, celebrates his 80th birthday. Of course, Uli Hoeneß is one of the very first congratulators. After all, the two have had a very special and intimate relationship for decades. They already knew each other well as a player, met with their rival teams, Hoeneß ‘FC Bayern and Heynckes’ Borussia Mönchengladbach, in the 1970s countless times. In 1974 they became world champions together in Munich. Former rivals quickly became quite best friends over the years.
Hoeneß is no longer a secret of this. “Everyone knows that I had built up the deepest personal relationship with all of our other big coaching personalities such as Pep Guardiola, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Carlo Ancelotti or Louis van Gaal,” he said exclusively to T-online on the occasion of Heynckes’ great honorary day. “Jupp is a friend – a personal friend of mine and a friend of FC Bayern. You can always rely on him.”
In his emotional appreciation, Hoeneß also explains why. “He stands for the fact that the human being should never be neglected. I am very happy and grateful that we went by side by side by side,” said Hoeneß. “Jupp was a great player, a unique trainer – and he is a special person to whom FC Bayern owes a lot to what is not just measured in victories or titles.” Heynckes is always there, and especially when FC Bayern needed it.
The dismissal of Heynckes in the early 1990s did not change that, which Hoeneß once described as the biggest mistake of his decades of manager career at Bayern. He tried to make up for it several times in the following years and decades – and brought Heynckes back three times as chief coach to the record champion.
In the first time in 2009, initially only as a short -term interim solution. Before Heynckes took over the head coaching post again in 2011. And the Bavaria then led to the culmination of his two-year office and all of his Bavaria period to the Champions League victory and the first triple win in the club’s history.
After the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti in October 2017, Hoeneß Heynckes even got back from retirement. After his fourth term, he resigned again as head coach in May 2018 – this time finally. He had promised his wife Iris and also his dog Cando.
If Hoeneß reaches for the phone again this Friday and chooses his number, Heynckes and his family will be very happy, but still relaxed on their farm in Schwalmtal. Another attempt to bring Heynckes back to FC Bayern will certainly no longer do Hoeneß. Instead, he will congratulate his old friend from the heart of his big anniversary day.