Borussia Dortmund is the first German European Cup winner (1966). Everyone knows that. Here come 20 Fun Facts to the BVB with “Wow!” effect.
The first national player: August Lenz (1910 – 1988) was the first national player of the BVB in 1935. He played a total of 14 international matches for Germany until 1938. After his active career, Lenz ran a pub on Borsigplatz in Dortmund for 33 years. The face of August Lenz today is the logo of Dortmund’s ultra-fan group “The Unity” next to the city eagle with the BVB emblem.
Weak defending champion: In the 1966/67 season, Borussia Dortmund, the winner of the European Cup finished the second round with a 1:2 and 0:0 win against Glasgow Rangers from Scotland.
In the pub: The BVB was founded on 4 Advent in 1909 by 18 people in the inn “Zum Wildschütz”.
Bierussia: This is not only the name of a well-known BVB fan club from Lower Saxony! The club’s name “Borussia” goes back to the Borussia brewery near Borsigplatz.
First game, first victory: BVB’s first game took place on January 15, 1910: A 9:3 win against VfB Dortmund.
The first home: The first BVB sports field was called “Weiße Wiese” known as Borussia Sportpark because poplars standing at the edge covered the lawn with white flowers.
The rival’s colors: It’s a good thing that this is only available on black-and-white photos! The first BVB jersey was blue and white striped and had a red diagonal stripe.
The BVB is advertising: With the rise to the Bundesliga in 1976, a yellow lion’s head on a black background was added to the logo for two years because of the tobacco sponsor of Samson.
No “regional history”: Bavaria’s boss Uli Hoeneß, for example, still bawled out the BVB in 2012. But that’s not true. The BVB has 130,000 members and 700 fan clubs with 45,000 members. BVB fan clubs also exist in Israel and the United States.
Mr. Lehmann: Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann leads the internal red ranking list of the BVB with four red cards.
No Derby winner: The 1:0 Derby victory against VfB Dortmund 1913 was canceled. The goal was 22 centimeters wider. The referee got the tape measure from a farm.
Coach-Slingshot: Until 1986 and the assumption of office by Reinhard Saftig who led Borussia from rank 16 into the UEFA Cup (1987), the club was considered as dubious led and the Westfalenstadion as coach catapult. In the 1983 calendar year alone, Karlheinz Feldkamp, two times Helmut Witte, Uli Maslo, and Hans-Dieter Tippenhauer, 5 BVB coaches, were in charge.
European Best: Matthias Sammer from Borussia Dortmund was the last German player to receive the “European Footballer” (Ballon d’ Or) award in 1996.
These coaches coached the BVB 2 times: Uli Maslo (1978/79 and 1983), Udo Lattek (1979-1981 and 2000), and Helmut Witte (1983 / 2 times).
Westfalenstadion without BVB: This was also the case in the Bundesliga – home games in Dortmund without Borussia! In the 1975/76 season, VfL Bochum had to move to Dortmund because the domestic Ruhr Stadium was rebuilt at that time.
The same Champions team: Unique in the history of the German Championship finals (1948 to 1963) – BVB won the title twice in a row with the same line-up. Heinrich Kwiatkowski; Wilhelm Burgsmüller, Herbert Sandmann; Elwin Schlebrowski, Max Michallek, Helmut Bracht; Wolfgang Peters, Alfred Preißler, Alfred Kelbassa, Alfred Niepieklo (“The 3 Alfredos”) and Helmut Kapitulski – these are the 11 master heroes for the donkey’s years.
Dortmund boy: Lars Ricken, born on July 10, 1976, in Dortmund, scores the 2 most important goals in the recent history of the BVB club. He headed Borussia Dortmund in 1995 to the German championship with a 2-0 win over Hamburg and lobbed himself into the history books with a 3-1 win over Juventus in the 1997 Champions League Final (“Ricken… Lupfen now!”).
The youngest Bundesliga player: Nuri Sahin from Borussia Dortmund is not only the youngest player in the history of the club but also in the history of the German football elite league. On his professional debut on July 16, 2005, against Sigma Olmütz in the UI Cup, the German Turk is 16 years, 10 months and 18 days old.
The goal crash: April 1, 1998, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid. Everyone is looking forward to the Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. Only the Ultras of the “royals” go too far. They tear down the goal. It takes 76 minutes to get a replacement. The “goal case” of Madrid inspires RTL presenter and reporter Marcel Reif to top performances. They receive the Grimme Prize in 1998 for a corny slur such as “The first goal was scored in the 0th minute” or “A goal would do the match well”.
Cup-Curse: The Borussia finally won a title again in 1989 after 23 years with the DFB Cup (4:1 against Werder Bremen in Berlin). It follows “The curse of the good deed”. The club never reached the final again between 1989/90 and 2008 (final against the Bavarians), but made 4 times “off” in the 1st round) and 5 times in round 2.