2nd season, 2nd episode
Double winner, five years in a row in the Champions League, captivating offensive power: Between 2003 and 2008, SV Werder shaped German football like only FC Bayern. Ex-pro Tim Borowski experienced the clever transfers of Klaus Allofs and the open approaches of coach Thomas Schaaf for many years. In the Transfermarkt podcast Done Deals, the former midfielder talks about the championship team, Miroslav Klose’s ugly departure to Bayern and his own path to Munich.
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When a “golden age” began again in Bremen, Borowski was a “hybrid professional”, as he says, a jumper between the first and second teams. Ailton and Claudio Pizarro joined the team, albeit with initial difficulties, Johan Micoud, who Borowski considers a “footballing genius”, showed his class, and Torsten Frings saw situations “that no one else sees”. In a conversation with TM podcast host Max Ropers and “Dazn” reporter Mario Rieker, who describes his impressions of the time from the fan perspective, Borowski classifies the old colleagues and also speaks a lot about the Klose case .
“In the years that followed, the name Klose was one that many Werder fans didn’t say,” Rieker first recalls from the supporters’ perspective of the transfer of the later World Cup record scorer, with a lot of background noise and talks with FC leaked early on Bayern 2007 for 15 million euros. At the time, it was Bremen’s record sale, but, according to Rieker, “a transfer that, in a way I had almost never experienced before, caused some fans a lot of displeasure.”
Borowski on Klose’s move to Bayern and his own departure to Munich
Borowski, who has a clear stance on what happened at the time, knows from his own experience how Klose’s departure was received by the team. “The way you treated Miro back then went beyond the limit,” said the former colleague, who played 143 times with Klose at Werder, Bayern and the DFB team. “To this day I don’t know by whom and how it was spread, why the topic was treated so below the belt line and why it was exploited in such a way, no matter how perfidious things were spread. It still doesn’t make sense to me to this day. There was a lot of unrest in the team and in the fan scene, but I think that was also provoked by certain channels, which the media were happy to pick up on. It wasn’t a nice situation, especially for Miro and his family – well below the belt.”
Borowski followed Klose to Munich a year later, albeit after fulfilling his contract in Bremen. “It was always about playing at the top level with the best clubs. For me it was always Werder Bremen and I wanted to be stamped like this: play in the Champions League, be successful, collect titles. Then came the request from Bayern Munich, and I just wanted to have this stamp on my business card. That was my personal goal. And to be honest, I would have expected it two years earlier. After the 2006 World Cup, I was also a bit angry that Bayern didn’t react immediately.”
Werder’s record arrivals from 1982
Rudi Völler (1982 for 500,000 euros from 1860 Munich)
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With the recommendation of 37 goals, second division top scorer Rudi Völler switched from TSV 1860 Munich to Werder in the summer of 1982. The transfer fee of the equivalent of 500,000 euros was intended to help the financially stricken “lions” in the fight for the license, but in the end they were forced to relegate. Völler, on the other hand, started out on the Weser, was top scorer in the top flight in the first year and gave Bremen a fee of EUR 3.75 million when he left AS Roma in 1987.
Bruno Pezzey (1983 for 675,000 euros from Frankfurt)
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Financial problems of the releasing club also played a role in Bruno Pezzey’s commitment a year later. Bremen brought the Austrian libero, who died in 1994, from Eintracht Frankfurt, where he previously held the captaincy. Pezzey also showed strong performances at the Weser, although he could not win a title with Werder and finished the season twice as runners-up.
Karl-Heinz Riedle (1987 for 800,000 euros from BW Berlin)
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Ironically, in 1987/88, when Pezzey and Völler had just left the club, the Green-Whites won their first championship. And his successor as a record player played a big part in that. As Völler’s successor, Karl-Heinz Riedle came from Blau-Weiss Berlin for 800,000 euros. In his debut season, the eventual world champion scored 18 goals – including the decisive goal in the championship on Matchday 31 in the 1-0 win in Frankfurt.
Thorsten Legat (1991 for 1.2 million euros from Bochum)
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Thorsten Legat, who came from VfL Bochum for 1.2 million euros after a strong season in the summer of 1991 and replaced Riedle as Werder’s record departure, also celebrated several titles on the Weser. In addition to the championship and cup wins, Legat was also part of the 1992 European Cup winners, although he did not play in the final. After three years he went on to Frankfurt Eintracht.
Andreas Herzog (1992 for 1.5 million euros from Rapid Vienna)
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Far more influential in the history of the club, however, was Andreas Herzog, who came a year after the legacy for the new record sum of 1.5 million euros from Rapid Vienna. The Austrian playmaker was active for Werder for almost ten years – and was celebrated by the fans even after a one-year interlude at FC Bayern in 1995/96. However, his second departure and the associated return to Rapid in January 2002 went rather ugly. Today’s national coach of Israel announced, among other things, his desire to change on TV and caused dissatisfaction among those responsible in Bremen.
Rodolfo Cardoso (1995 for 3.25 million euros from Freiburg
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The club had a transfer flop in the summer of 1995 with the signing of Rodolfo Cardoso. After two strong years, the Argentine was sold by SC Freiburg for €3.25m, but failed to live up to expectations at his new club. After just a year and a half, the playmaker, who came as a record signing, moved on – to northern rivals HSV of all places.
Miroslav Klose (2004 for €5m from Kaiserslautern)
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Manager Klaus Allofs proudly presented the next record signing in Werder history. Courted by numerous clubs, Miroslav Klose decided in the summer of 2004 to move to northern Germany. He was Bremen’s top scorer in 2005/06 and was one of the most important players in his three years at the club. The fee of 5 million euros for today’s World Cup record scorer was even tripled when he went to Bayern Munich in 2007.
Diego (2006 for €6m from Porto)
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The signing of playmaker Diego, who came from FC Porto for €6m just a year after Klose, was a direct hit. In his three years in the green and white jersey, he made sure of a lot of highlights and finally won the DFB Cup in May 2009. The Brazilian, who is still active today, then switched to Juventus Turin for €27m – the highest transfer fee that Werder has ever paid for a player.
Carlos Alberto (2007 for €7.8m from Fluminense)
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After Diego’s strong debut season, Werder manager Allofs got a taste for it and brought in another Brazilian for a record sum in 2007. However, the time of Carlos Alberto, who was to succeed his compatriot in the future, was mainly characterized by headlines off the field. He never justified the EUR 7.8 million transfer fee. Hardly surprising with only five missions. He was loaned back to his home country for the first time after just six months and finally left the club for good in 2010. The former record man did not bring in a fee.
Marko Marin (2009 for 8.2 million euros from Gladbach)
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400,000 euros more expensive than Carlos Alberto was his successor as record signing Marko Marin, who was brought from Gladbach in 2009. Today’s globetrotter – Marin has now been active as a professional in nine countries – was considered one of the greatest hopes of German football at the time. In his three years on the Weser, however, he did not always show his talent consistently and lost his place in the national team. Nevertheless, Chelsea paid almost the same amount when they signed him a year before the end of his contract in the summer of 2012.
Davy Klaassen (2018 for €13.5m from Everton)
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The mark set by Marin was not to fall until nine years later. For Davy Klaassen, Werder then made the new record sum of 13.5 million euros loose in 2018. The Dutchman was in a sporting impasse at Everton. In Bremen, on the other hand, he impressed for long stretches and in the meantime even acted as the team’s captain in a few games. In 2020 he went back to Ajax Amsterdam.
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