Ottmar Hitzfeld is one of the most successful German club coaches of all time. As a coach, he was German champion seven times, and he also won the Champions League once each with BVB and FC Bayern. 25 years after the premier class triumph with Borussia Dortmund, the old master now revealed some secrets of the greatest success in BVB club history.
Borussia Dortmund’s 3-1 win over Juventus Turin in the 1997 Champions League final is still unforgettable today. The celebrated heroes back then were double goal scorer Karl-Heinz Riedle, dream goal scorer Lars Ricken, midfield director Andreas Möller and lead wolf Matthias Sammer.
However, 25 years after winning the handle pot with the Black and Yellows, Hitzfeld himself highlighted another BVB hero who is often forgotten in retrospect: midfielder Paul Lambert.
“He was unbelievable because he was always in the right place and worked for the team. He was the ideal addition,” Hitzfeld ennobled the Scot, who was only under contract with BVB for a year and a half and left again at the end of 1997, in an interview the “Ruhr news“.
Ironically, for the final of the Champions League, Hitzfeld decided to use Lambert and thus against his direct competitor, the then captain Michael Zorc, which caused an extremely explosive atmosphere.
“It was difficult for me to leave Michael Zorc out. He has unbelievable qualities, he always pushed into the penalty area. But I had to see the team as a whole and Lambert was the more defensive player,” Hitzfeld explained his actions at the time.
BVB legend Hitzfeld on “the most difficult decision of my life”
Hitzfeld also had to make a highly controversial decision in defense. Hitzfeld opted for the Juve game against Wolfgang Feiersinger in the libero position, who had played a very strong season up to that point, and ordered Matthias Sammer to this post.
Hitzfeld admitted: “It was the most difficult decision of my life. Sammer was top, Europe’s footballer of the year. I went to Feiersinger’s room on the day of the game and had to tell him that not only was he not playing, he was not even in the squad . I needed Tretschok as a more flexible player on the bench because I would have had to react if I went behind. Unfortunately, there were only five substitutes.”
In the end, the now 73-year-old was right. The feat of winning the Champions League was even repeated by the iconic coach four years later with FC Bayern.
The soccer teacher ended his coaching career with the resignation as Swiss national coach in the summer of 2014.