With one hand already on the bowl, Borussia Dortmund lost the long-awaited championship on the last match day of the season. BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke once again emphasized how drastic this experience was.
“May 27th was a turning point, we don’t have to kid ourselves,” Watzke explained at the club’s general meeting of shareholders. “It was the day of the biggest disappointment of my life,” the Dortmund club boss also reveals how much the missed championship match point affected him personally.
At BVB we realized that day that “we couldn’t withstand the pressure in this game. The pressure was enormous, but we couldn’t cope with it,” said Watzke.
The night after the 2-2 draw against 1. FSV Mainz 05, he “didn’t sleep because I knew that something like that could destroy a club or at least do damage for years,” said the 64-year-old, outlining his dramatic fears.
In the meantime, BVB has “processed what happened and tried to derive something from it,” Watzke continued. However, it is still not entirely clear to him what they did wrong. So far, the trauma has been dealt with “reasonably well”, but the situation is still not easy. Also because the frustration of some players would have been deep.
Unsurprisingly, Watzke is quite satisfied with the current season. The previous performance is “decent, in the past we would have even said good. I would like two, three, four points more, but the 24 are not something we have to give up for,” said the BVB boss.
BVB is playing “against states today”
They are also in a good position in the top group of the Champions League. “I wouldn’t have expected that, because today we no longer play against football clubs, but against countries. Against Qatar, the owner of Paris Saint-Germain and Saudi Arabia, the owner of Newcastle United.”
In view of this competition, BVB’s “always the goal of being close to the optimum in terms of what is possible”, and this will also be achieved in 2023/2024, said Watzke.
In addition, it is fair to say that “in recent years we have had to give up two of our top performers, Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland. Not because we wanted to, but if Real Madrid and Manchester City come, then it will be difficult. And that “It’s something that a team has to cope with first.”