Dortmund’s coach Juergen Klopp and his players attend a training session on April 15, 2015 in Dortmund. (AFP)
DPA/Berlin
Coach Juergen Klopp will leave Borussia Dortmund after Saturday’s German Cup final with Wolfsburg in Berlin and is determined to end on a high but the Bundesliga runners-up are also wanting to lift the silverware.
Wolfsburg’s only major honour is the Bundesliga title from the 2009 but having finished second behind champions Bayern Munich this year, they are entitled to be confident.
Dortmund ended the campaign seventh but rather than being a disappointment, this is considered as salvation following a disastrous first half to the campaign which left them fighting relegation.
Though officially outside of the automatic European qualifying spots, Dortmund are guaranteed Europa League entry next term due to playing Champions League-bound Wolfsburg in the cup final.
And now there is the chance to end the term by lifting the German Cup for the fourth time overall and second time under Klopp.
“I would really love to celebrate again,” Klopp said of a possible winners’ party in the city centre on Sunday. “We can crown this story and achieve something big.”
Klopp’s time with the club is coming to an end of his own volition after seven dramatic seasons. Twice they were German champions and came within an ace of winning the Champions League, losing the 2013 final to Bayern Munich.
Unsurprisingly given his record, Klopp is not only subject to media speculation over his future but being feted by those at Dortmund for his achievements. The fans displayed a huge banner with his image before his last Bundesliga game, a 3-2 win over Werder Bremen, and chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke expressed his thanks in gushing terms.
“We would not have been so successful with any other coach on the planet,” Watzke told Kicker magazine.
But Wolfsburg are not heading to the capital just to provide the backdrop for Klopp’s farewell.
“This will not be a Klopp final,” Wolfsburg sport director Klaus Allofs said. “We are not playing against Klopp and nor is (our coach) Dieter Hecking facing Klopp.
“This a game between Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund.”
Wolfsburg will be full of confidence after their strongest league performance in six years.
“We are now there where we always said we want to be,” full-back Marcel Schaefer said. “I think we’ve won a lot of favour on our side with the manner in which we play football.
“We are deservedly runners-up. The whole club, the surroundings and the fans have deserved this success.”
And while Dortmund may feel slightly emotional due to Klopp’s impending departure, Wolfsburg will carry heavy hearts for reasons of their own.
Belgian midfielder Junior Malanda died in a car crash en route to the airport to depart for Wolfsburg’s winter training camp in January leaving coach Hecking to seal the psychological wounds caused by the loss of a teammate.
“Before the first training session (at the camp), we had a minute of silence,” Hecking said. “Then I spoke with the team. Not long but it was one of my most important talks. That was the key moment to the second half of the season, our future.”
The final will be the first appearance of Wolfsburg in next season’s kit but has a special modification for the match in Berlin - a heart with ‘19’, Malanda’s number, above the club badge.
“The heart is in memory of Junior Malanda,” Allofs said. “In recent months, we have often said we were playing with him on our minds and that is particularly the case in this final. This concerted action is a specific reminder of that.”
