Jonas Hofmann on honesty in football – Keeps the end of his career open in Gladbach

BVB episode “great success”

Jonas Hofmann is one of the central figures at Borussia Mönchengladbach and a regular player. The 30-year-old offensive player switched from Borussia Dortmund to the “foals” for 8 million euros in 2016 and has earned his high status over the years. Hofmann is now one of the longest-serving professionals in the squad. It all started under coach André Schubert – for Hofmann, who cannot promise to stay at Gladbach until the end of his career, it was more of a start to forget.

“The coach and Max Eberl (sports director at the time; ed.) gave me the feeling that they really wanted me. During the preliminary talks, they presented me with performance data that went back to my youth, which I didn’t know myself. So I switched with the feeling that I was going to become a regular player,” Hofmann revealed in an interview with “11Freunde”. “But Schubert left me on the bench in the first game against BVB. After the second game against Mainz, I played almost no role at all. An experience that I had never had before.” For the first time in his career, he had the feeling that he “was of little value to the team”.

Looking back on his experiences off the field, on a scale of one to ten for honesty in football, he would say “a score of around five”. The national player experienced that things can be different at BVB – although he mostly came off the bench in a total of 59 appearances. “But there, Jürgen Klopp always told me that I was important and that he liked me. That was enough for me when I was 19 or 20, also because it was steadily progressing,” said Hofmann. “In Gladbach, however, I thought I was on a different level of development and that’s what I was told when I signed up. But André Schubert obviously couldn’t see much in me.”

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According to his own statements, Hofmann consequently dealt with his subordinate role in a “very bad way”. That reaction – “I was stinky and often trudged around the pitch in training with my head hanging so that everyone would know I was in a bad mood” – he would advise against every young player nowadays. At that time, Hofmann decided to work with a psychologist. He was already familiar with the help of mental coaches from his youth at TSG Hoffenheim. The turning point and personal rise of Hofmann then followed under Schubert’s successor Dieter Hecking, who took over as coach in Gladbach in December 2016. “Ever since I became a leader under Hecking, I’ve never thought about falling into a hole again,” said the right-footer, who was able to channel the excitement better today.

Hofmann has played 204 games for the “foals” in all competitions so far, scoring 44 goals and providing 49 assists. The veteran extended his contract early in August 2022 until June 2025 with the option of another season. In making this decision, he “rather followed my feelings”. “Of course, when I made the decision, I weighed up whether I wanted to go abroad again or whether I wanted to earn more somewhere else. But in the end it was clear to me that I was currently getting the best package here.” Ten years ago he would have measured the success of a career by the number of titles. Today, at the age of 30, that perspective has changed. After his time at BVB, which he described as a “great success” because he “made the leap from amateurs to professionals at this top club at the age of 20”, he can now understand the long road to the Champions League much more realistically . Hofmann would therefore also appreciate the repeated entry into the European Cup in the remaining years of his contract.

End of career at Gladbach? Jonas Hofmann doesn’t want to rule anything out

Hofmann doesn’t want to make any promises to commit himself to Borussia until the end of his professional career. “Of course I could say: I’ll end my career in Mönchengladbach! Come what may. But nobody knows what the future will bring, especially not in football. And that’s why I would never say that,” explained Hofmann, who understands that fans are looking for identification figures. “But people have to understand that everyone is responsible for their own lives and makes their own decisions. And that sometimes there are motives that lead to a decision that is nobody’s business.”

At the World Cup in Qatar, Hofmann was in the German squad of national coach Hansi Flick, but could not prevent the early knockout in the preliminary round. However, Heidenberger was only on the pitch for 28 minutes. He “just can’t get the game against Japan out of his head”. Hofmann emphasized: “The fact that we are to blame for the departure makes it difficult to bear.” His market value is currently EUR 16 million, which is only EUR 3 million away from his best mark at the beginning of 2021.

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