Over eleven years ago, FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund made football history with the first German-German Champions League final in 2013. For then Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes, the 2-1 victory at Wembley against BVB was the crowning achievement of his already outstanding career. The Munich club icon remembered the greatest moments surrounding the match.
Both Heynckes and the FC Bayern team drew their greatest motivation from the disgrace they had suffered a year earlier in the “Finale dahoam” against FC Chelsea. At that time, the Munich team had lost the Champions League final in dramatic fashion on penalties.
“From the first day of training, you could feel that everyone – the team, the staff, the coaching crew, the entire club – wanted to correct this painful defeat. Never in my long career as a coach have I seen a team that worked so professionally, consistently and ambitiously towards a goal,” wrote Heynckes in a guest article in “kicker”.
“As so often in my life, I had filtered the greatest motivation and strength from the greatest disappointment of my life, the final at home,” added the now 78-year-old.
Heynckes on “fabulous moments of happiness”
For the long-time Bayern head coach, his team at the time embodied all the important attributes needed for triumphs at the highest level in sport.
Even more than a decade later, Heynckes has only words of praise for his former stars: “They were living proof, once again, that the greatest successes in football are only possible with internal harmony, teamwork and respect for one another. My announced retirement after almost 50 years in professional football had been rounded off perfectly.”
Heynckes described the 2013 Champions League victory as a “fabulous moment of happiness”, which he had previously experienced during his first German championship in 1971 with Borussia Mönchengladbach and the Champions League triumph in 1998 with Real Madrid.
Source: www.sport.de
