Ex-BVB talent in an interview
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At the end of the year, we look back at some of our interview highlights from 2025. In February we published the article about our conversation with ex-professional Timo Achenbach.
With 323 games for five clubs, Timo Achenbach was one of the veterans of the 2nd Bundesliga during his active career. During this time, the left-back experienced some ups and downs: from promotion to participation in a semi-final of the DFB Cup to relegation. At Transfermarkt, the now 42-year-old looks back on his eventful career.
Although Timo Achenbach ended his professional career a few years ago, he is still connected to football. He is active in the traditional team of Borussia Dortmund and therefore with the club where he once grew up playing football. From 1996 to 2001, he went through all of the Black and Yellow youth teams alongside later Bundesliga professionals such as Salvatore Gambino, David Odonkor and Florian Kringe.
“BVB means a lot to me. Like so many children in Dortmund, I went to the stadium as a toddler with my father and grandfather and became infected with BVB. A highlight for me personally was of course reaching the final of the German B Youth Championship, even though we lost the game 3-1 in the end,” says Achenbach, who has to laugh at that moment and immediately explains why. “We had a great team back then and completed our summer training camp in Mallorca. During the day we trained with the ball and in the evening we trained other skills in Cala Ratjada. Today something like that would be unthinkable as a B youth player.”
Achenbach on dream of Bundesliga debut & impressive Rosicky
At this point, Achenbach was considered a great talent at BVB. Accordingly, the left-back dreamed of celebrating his Bundesliga debut at the Westfalenstadion. At 19, he seemed to be very close to his dream. In the 2002/03 season he was in the Bundesliga squad on the first two matchdays.
“I still remember clearly, on the second matchday, I was injured during the game and I was convinced that I would come in. In the end, however, Matthias Sammer decided on Ahmed Madouni. I was correspondingly sad, of course. But in a completely neutral way, I have to say that Dedê showed outstanding performances back then and therefore no chance arose. Nowadays it would probably have been easier to get a taste of the Bundesliga because today’s coaches give the young players more opportunities. That wasn’t the case back then,” says Achenbach, who still looks back on the training sessions with the BVB professionals with great joy.
“If you consider the legends that were in the squad back then, it’s very impressive. What impressed me the most was Tomas Rosicky. His intelligence in the game, his ability on the ball, his overview. For me, Rosicky was an outstanding footballer and the best BVB player at the time. I was able to learn a lot during that time, also from others. Fredi Bobic, for example, took a lot of time for me and explained to me what was important in professional football. Stefan Reuter, on the other hand, was able to “You could get very loud if you made an unnecessary mistake in training. Looking back, it was a great time.”
Achenbach at VfB Lübeck: Anecdotes about Thioune, Hecking & DFB Cup
In order to give the youngster match practice, BVB loaned him to the then second division club VfB Lübeck in the 2003/04 season. When Achenbach kicked the ball for the first time in the 2nd Bundesliga, clubs like Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, Eintracht Tier, Energie Cottbus and LR Ahlen were still playing in the lower house – pure nostalgia. “It’s a shame what has become of all the traditional clubs. I would also like to see VfB Lübeck return to professional football quickly. I only associate my time in Lübeck with beautiful and funny moments. I still remember that I tunnelled Daniel Thioune in my first training session. As a thank you there was a hard tackle,” he remembers with a laugh.
He also praises the former coach. “Dieter Hecking is a top coach, both professionally and personally. He spent a lot of time with us young players; you could tell that it was important to him to help us players progress. But he also knew exactly what values he had to convey to us, for example. After our game in Regensburg, we only arrived in Lübeck in the middle of the night. I was correspondingly tired the next day and so I thought I could come to the training pitch with a coffee mug. Dieter Hecking met me in front of the entire team “After that I knew he could do something different,” says Achenbach, amused.
But he will never forget the season in Lübeck for another reason. That year, VfB was considered the surprise team in the DFB Cup. On the way to the semi-finals, FC St. Pauli and SC Freiburg were knocked out of the competition. It only ended against Werder Bremen. “I have to say that we were definitely screwed that evening. The 3-2 lead in extra time was preceded by a handball by Nelson Valdez, so the goal shouldn’t have counted. I am convinced that we would have beaten Werder in a penalty shootout.”
Achenbach: “In Cologne you can fly up quickly, but also fall deeply”
Achenbach’s performances in Lübeck were particularly noted by 1. FC Köln, who in turn loaned him from BVB. While he was slowly introduced to the pressure that existed in professional football in Dortmund and Lübeck, in Cologne, as part of the professional squad, he experienced and felt for the first time clearly the importance of football and its media coverage in the cathedral city. “In Cologne you can fly up quickly, but you can also fall deep. Back then, for example, I didn’t get a chance at all in the first eight games and was left out. On the 10th matchday I was in the starting line-up and even prepared a goal. The next morning there was a big picture of me in the sports section of a newspaper: ‘Timo Achenbach: Our new Dirk Lottner.’ I thought it was cool, but I was also able to really appreciate it,” says the native of Witten, who managed to return to the Bundesliga with the Effzeh in 2005.
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“Cologne is an absolute football stronghold. I can understand why a player like Jonas Hector stayed at Effzeh for so long. The fans and the city love their club. I think that if I had been shown the right perspective back then, I would have stayed in Cologne too,” said Achenbach.
The fact that his living room would from now on be the 2nd Bundesliga instead of the German upper house became clear during his subsequent stint at Greuther Fürth. He played 73 second division games for the Kleeblatt. Over the course of the respective seasons, he repeatedly fought for promotion with Fürth, but without success. “What annoyed me most was the result of the 2007/08 season. We had a great coach in Bruno Labbadia, who did us extremely well as a team. He still felt like a semi-professional when you saw him in the training sessions and was full of passion on the sidelines. We were even second in the table at one point. In fact, I can’t answer the question as to why it wasn’t enough in the end. Maybe it was the lack of quality, maybe it was the lack of luck. I can only say that “We deserved it as a team.”
Achenbach finds a sporting home at Alemannia Aachen
The left-back only found his true sporting home at the age of 25, when he moved to the then second division club Alemannia Aachen. Even if things were turbulent there at times. The negative highlight was the relegation in the 2011/12 season. “Next to the Betzenberg, the atmosphere in Aachen was the best that I have experienced during my career. When I think of the old Tivoli, with the rustic corridors, when I think of the incredibly passionate fans and the corresponding atmosphere, I can simply say thank you for allowing me to spend part of my career there. Even though the farewell to Aachen back then was anything but pleasant due to relegation from the 2nd Bundesliga,” says Achenbach, who plays for Alemannia He made 130 appearances, the most in his career.
Instead of relegation, he preferred to remember the highlight games in the 2010/11 DFB Cup. “We had an incredible team spirit in Aachen. The team spirit came first. So it didn’t matter who was on the sidelines. We fought for each other, which is exactly why we were able to advance to the quarter-finals.” But FC Bayern was a bit too big there.
Achenbach about his worst opponent Landgraf & jersey collection
He cemented his status as a second division veteran at SV Sandhausen, for whom he kicked the ball in 92 games from 2012 to 2015. With a total of 323 games at the end, jersey lovers Achenbach accumulated a corresponding number of jerseys. “In fact, I had well over 150 jerseys at the time, but I have now given many of them away or auctioned them off for charity. But I have kept a few highlight jerseys: including Arjen Robben’s from the cup quarter-final against Bayern Munich or a neon-colored Aachen jersey.”
When asked about the worst opponent, he had to laugh: “By far it was Willi Landgraf. He insulted, he fouled, he told jokes. He really made me grumpy and tired. But after the game we shook hands and everything was fine again.”
What is striking when looking at Achenbach’s career and is probably a main reason why he was able to play such a high number of games is the fact that he was virtually immune to injuries. “My secret recipe was currywurst fries once a week. But joking aside, I knew what I could afford as a professional footballer and what I couldn’t. Of course, I also went out to party or treated myself to a currywurst, but I also knew that when the referee blew his whistle, it meant 90 minutes of full throttle regardless of the losses.”
Today he looks back on his career with pride and emphasizes that he wouldn’t have swapped his many second division games for a few Bundesliga minutes. “I could have also moved to Gladbach, Kaiserslautern or Freiburg, but I would only have been scheduled there as a backup. But I always wanted to play. I am therefore very proud of my career and the high number of second division games. Looking back, it was an extremely cool time and it’s funny that I forget things around the house when my wife tells me something, but I, for example, know exactly who scored the goals on matchday 6 of the 2007/08 season Greuther Fürth scored,” said Timo Achenbach with a laugh at the end.
By Henrik Stadnischenko