Exclusive | Former Borussia Dortmund Steffen Freund on crossing the Revier Derby divide, the Golden Era of Borussia Dortmund and missing the 1997 Champions League final

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·25 de junio de 2025

Exclusive | Former Borussia Dortmund Steffen Freund on crossing the Revier Derby divide, the Golden Era of Borussia Dortmund and missing the 1997 Champions League final

Imagen del artículo:Exclusive | Former Borussia Dortmund Steffen Freund on crossing the Revier Derby divide, the Golden Era of Borussia Dortmund and missing the 1997 Champions League final

If you are familiar with the Bundesliga World Feed, you will be familiar with ex-Borussia Dortmund midfielder Steffen Freund, one of the regular co-commentators who will soundtrack our Bundesliga weekend (if you watch the English coverage that is).

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of East Germany in 1990 and then the subsequent ending of the DDR Oberliga in 1991, Freund swapped hometown team BSV Stahl Brandenburg for the then newly promoted Bundesliga side Schalke in the summer, after a brief recruitment attempt by the Stasi.

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With die Königsblau, Freund featured 56 times, but in 1993, he swapped Schalke for Borussia Dortmund. Something that seems unthinkable. In fact, Freund is the latest player to have moved east to the Westfalenstadion, which should tell you everything about this path. The last player to move between the clubs at all was Felipe Santana, who moved from Dortmund to Schalke.

However, Schalke were in a position where they needed to sell the then 23-year-old to help fund their fight against relegation, while from a sporting point of view, Freund would have to take the next step:

“My first two years, I played in the Bundesliga with a team involved in the relegation zone. And from the professional point, from the footballing point, Dortmund was the next step to play, and maybe win the German championship…then to play in Europe, and there was a rule from the national coach, Berti Vogts, so you have to play international games before you play for Germany. So then you can see the professional point, it was 100% right to make that step.”

However, despite moving to Schalke’s fierce rivals, there is no bad blood:

“The good news is I’m still invited from Schalke to the Legends meeting once a year and they never forgot. So I was the player that they could sell for good money at that time, to Dortmund and to save Schalke at that time. And that’s why they understand more today than maybe in February in 1993.”

The good grace now did not stop the negative reactions from fans when Freund first returned to the Parkstadion

“They came, you say you have to die, something like that, you can’t do that, autograph cards they put it in the bin. So that was the part of that move. And when I came back with Dortmund to the first game was the same in the stadium, so not easy.”

Schalke actually won this game 1-0.

In 1993, when Freund moved to Dortmund, the club had begun to spend big to try and compete with Bayern Munich. The summer of 1992 saw future Ballon d’Or winner Matthias Sammer join from Inter, while Stefan Reuter also swapped Italy for Dortmund as he joined from Juventus. 1993 saw Freund join alongside Karl-Heinz Riedle from Lazio, while a lesser-known Lars Ricken was also promoted from the youth team.

Freund joined a Dortmund side that had yet to win the Bundesliga, and had not won a German championship in over 30 years. However, the first year wasn’t easy, and Dortmund finished fourth:

“My first year was really difficult, because Gerd Niebaum, Markus Knipping and Michael Meier (President, CEO and Board Member), lead the club and they made a decision. We buy top players from other clubs, all former German internationals. So I was one before summer, Riedle you mentioned already, and the year after when we finished only fourth, and there was lots of trouble in the team and in the club. They make the decision, we keep going that way.”

The following summer, Dortmund spent big again and raided Juventus of two players, bringing Andreas Möller back from Italy as well as signing defender Julio Cesar. Dortmund would then win the Bundesliga in 1994/95, finishing one point ahead of Werder Bremen. Die Schwarzgelben would again spend big the following year and sign Jürgen Kohler (again from Juventus) and Heiko Herrlich from Borussia Mönchengladbach. In 1995/96, Dortmund would win the league again

A winning culture is something that is developed by winning. You see it in every sport; once a team wins, it is very hard for them to stop. Even with the Bundesliga, you look at the strength of Bayern, and that is because they have a winning culture.

The 90s are seen as the ‘Golden Era’ of Borussia Dortmund as they won two Bundesliga titles and, most importantly, the Champions League in 1997. It is safe to say, the Bundesliga wins helped the Dortmund team going forward:

“So in the end, they bought Andreas Muller and Julio Cesar and Jürgen Kohler on top of the players I have mentioned already. So then we’ve been individually so strong that we have, of course, the chance to win the league. And then we did it in my second year. I think that was the key for the team to win two years later, (the Champions League) because first you have to be the best team in Germany and you have to beat Bayern Munich at that time, Hamburg, Schalke, big teams, in the Bundesliga. And we did. So first year was difficult for me, a really hard experience, especially to move from Schalke. Lots of Dortmund supporters said he is not good enough. Sent them back to Schalke. So it wasn’t easy. But in the second year, we bounced back with a fantastic team.”

In 1996, the midfielder would travel with Germany to the EURO 1996 in England, where they would ultimately win the competition. However, in the iconic semi-final against England, Freund would be substituted off in the 118th minute with what ended up being a cruciate ligament injury, missing the final in the process.

The medical capabilities were completely different to what they are today, and Freund would miss the majority of the 1996/97 season for Dortmund, only making brief cameos in the Champions League semi-final against Manchester United and two Bundesliga games at the backend of the season.

This meant Freund was not present on the pitch for the run that saw Dortmund reach the Champions League final in Munich, where they would face Juventus. However, despite not being on the pitch, Freund was still present at the Olympiastadion:

“Of course, when you’re not playing, that’s, if you love the game and you play like me with 110%, you are always disappointed if you’re not playing. So if I were on the bench, then uh, I was injured. So that’s good news for me. And, my attitude was always like that. That’s why people still remember my style of football and think, oh yes, we need that mentality in the midfield still, no.”

The most important role that Freund played on that memorable night in May was organising the party:

“I was organising everything afterwards because I was still a part of a fantastic football team. And, uh, um, and still if you’ve been on the bench or me. So that’s why everything still in my head is most of them are positive.”

However, apart from missing the showpiece in 1997, Dortmund would make the semifinals before losing to Real Madrid. Freund was back to regularly featuring for die Schwarzgelben:

“I think the most positive answer for me was that afterwards (the season after), we still played in the semi-final against Madrid. Yeah. We had a really good team to maybe win the Champions League again, and then we won the World Club Cup against Cruzeiro. And so it didn’t stop to win silverware. And of course, everyone was there in Munich. Everyone sticks together.”

Freund would leave Dortmund in 1999 for Tottenham in the Premier League. After brief spells with Kaiserslautern and Leicester, Freund would retire in 2004 and move into coaching. Freund would mainly manage in the German national team youth system with spells as an assistant manager of Germany U20s sandwiched with a tenure as Nigeria’s assistant manager under Berti Vogts, as well as leading the U16s and U17s. His last spell in management was with Tottenham between 2012 and 2015, where he was assistant manager.

GGFN | Jack Meenan

The interview was made possible by hochgepokert.com