“Union Berlin Deserve To Be The Top Club In Berlin” — An Interview With Jörg Heinrich | OneFootball

An interview with Jörg Heinrich, Ben McFadyean.

Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League against Juventus in 1997, a great BVB evening in which you played a decisive role as a defender. What memories do you have of that classic final?“Winning the final is something colossal, something that takes quite a bit of time to understand what you have just done, you don’t get it at the moment when it happens. The moment when the final whistle blows you just want to embrace the whole world.

“You feel so proud and happy and you want to hug all the black and yellow fans. It’s hard to communicate you are just one of the few who have managed to win the Champions League, really takes a few years to settle in!

“People in Dortmund still talk about it after 20 years – that makes this Champions League victory with BVB so special for me, we knew we had achieved something very special for BVB.“It will always be a super moment in Dortmund’s great history which will stick with me for a lifetime.”

Let me ask you about a special part of the team, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. He is often credited with being one of the keys to success in the 96/97 season, what was it that made Ottmar so unusual as a coach?“I believe that his greatest strength was his ability with people, he was able to deal very well with people, and he always could motivate people.

“I was lucky enough to play many of the Champions League matches from the start, but Ottmar gave the players on the bench the same feeling as us, he motivated them and made them feel they too were needed to win matches. “He could keep the players onside and primed to play, just look at our striker Lars Ricken and his goal after 30 seconds on the pitch in the final. Whether you were playing or not you knew you were needed for the team to win, that was his greatest strength as a coach Ottmar’s ability to motivate players.”

“Paul Lambert, yes undoubtedly a great personality in my career. To this day the only fan chant on the Südtribüne [Dortmund’s legendary fan terrace], that featured two players were Paul Lambert and Jörg Heinrich — there has never been a chant like it in Dortmund!

“When the players were announced the fans chanted our names together not individually, a unique and special memory which connects us as players. I believe it is not different for Paul.”

Martin Kree was also a top defender with BVB at the time with whom you always appeared to have a great rapport. “Martin Kree was a friend. During the 96/97 season, there were many injuries and we played many matches together.

“We also share the same sense of humour which contributes to a friendship which has stood for many years.

“The atmosphere was great in the squad; sure there were high expectations but it was a super squad and I have good memories of that time.”

You were negotiating to join Arsenal in 1995, then managed by Arsène Wenger. Would you have liked to have played in the Premier League?“It’s no secret that I had more than friendly contact with Arsenal at the start of the ’95 season and I had entered already into talks with Arsène Wenger.

“Arsenal is a team with history in England. I would have liked to try it, but since I had a contract with Borussia, Michael Meier the CEO said: ‘we have a good team here and we can not let you go,’ so that was [that] for the Premier League. That’s just how it is sometimes!”

You won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and then in 1998 you switched to Italy’s Serie A and Fiorentina. Fiorentina was impressive even though it was only a season but you achieved the highest transfer at that time for any German player at £22m.“That time in Italy was unique, especially working with the great coach Giovanni Trappatoni.

“I had talks at that time with Inter and Parma in Serie A, but the idea of working with coach Trapattoni, who achieved so much with Juventus and Bayern and others, impressed me because he is known as being one of the very best coaches in the game.

“In the Fiorentina team, I played with greats like Batistuta, Rui Costa, Chiesa, Toldo and also Mijatovic who later went to Real Madrid in a team with such legends on the pitch. It was a great time.”

“I was happy to move to Dortmund, a team I have always been proud to play for BVB. Fiorentina at that time were financially at the lowest ebb. On the pitch things were going well — we qualified for the Uefa Cup and reached the second stage of the Champions League — but the club were in the dumps financially.

“I was lucky that my former team colleague, Matthias Sammer, was made coach at BVB, he called me up and so that was that and of course 2002 was memorable.”

What are your recollections of playing in England? Have you ever been to watch a Premier League game?

“I was, of course, in England as a player in the Champions League many times, for example against Manchester United in the semifinals in ’96 — what an atmosphere!

“I always looked forward to the matches in England — the home of football — but we also have a special atmosphere in Dortmund, a very special atmosphere.

“I have never as yet attended a match in the Premier League although I would like to, especially Manchester United or Tottenham.”

“We played Manchester United in the semifinals of the Champions League. One player I remember well was David Beckham — he was my direct opponent on more than one occasion and was a special footballer.

“In his autobiography [My Side] Beckham was asked which was his worst opponent on the pitch and the response was ‘Jörg Heinrich’ — a great compliment.”

“I was actually sporting director at the club after playing for them for a season.

“The club are a very special part of football in Berlin. It’s incredible seeing their success and there is a unique connection between the club and the fans.

“Union are the leading club in Berlin and they deserve to be. I’m quite a fan.”

Jörg Heinrich played 37 matches for the German national team between 1995 and 2002 including taking part in the world cup in 1998.

Heinrich played for SC Freiburg between 1994-96 before transferring to Borussia Dortmund in 1996 with which he won the 1996 Bundesliga title and the 1997 Champions League as well as the Intercontinental Cup. Transferring to AC Fiorentina in the Serie A for the then-highest transfer fee ever achieved for a German player – a then Bundesliga record of £22m.

The Rathenow-born all-rounder returned to Dortmund in 2000 and was part of the team that won the German title in 2002. In 2003 he transferred to FC Cologne before moving to Union Berlin in 2006 before retiring after having made 439 appearances at a professional level, scoring 65 goals, in 2007.

A highly acclaimed player who could play in defence and midfield on both sides, he was described by David Beckham as ‘his worst ever opponent’. Jörg won the Bundesliga title twice with Borussia Dortmund in 95/96 and 2001/02, the Champions League in 1997 and the Intercontinental Cup the same year.