Akte Gladbach BMG

Steckbrief – Facts, figures and milestones

Borussia Mönchengladbach's full name is Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. The club was founded on August 1, 1900 (under the name FK Borussia 1900).

Borussia play at the Borussia-Park (54,067 seats). The club colours are black, white and green, and membership exceeds 85,000. They are Germany's sixth-largest club (as of December 2019) with more than 1,000 fan clubs across the country.

The professional football division is operated by the capital company Borussia VfL 1900 Mönchengladbach GmbH, which is 100% owned by the registered association.

Borussia Mönchengladbach's first team were promoted to the Bundesliga in 1965 and had won five national championships, three DFB-Pokal titles and two UEFA Cups by December 2019. They occupy sixth place in the Bundesliga all-time table. The attacking style of play that thrilled the Bundesliga in the late 1960s and 1970s earned them the nickname "the Foals" and established them as one of Germany's most romantic football institutions.

That much is known. Less well known is that the founding of Borussia Mönchengladbach was chaotic. A group of young footballers, deeply dissatisfied with the local sports club at the turn of the 20th century, broke away and founded their own association under the name FK Borussia 1900. To secure a proper pitch, the fledgling club then merged with a local parish — a pragmatic alliance born of necessity.

Borussia were not among the Bundesliga's founding members and were merely a regional force in German football before 1965. After the Second World War, the club played two seasons in the Landesliga before oscillating between the 2. Liga West and the then-top-flight Oberliga West from 1949/50 onwards. What few people know: the club won their first title — the Western German championship — in 1920.

Under new coach Hennes Weisweiler, Borussia Mönchengladbach won promotion to the Bundesliga in the 1964/65 season — simultaneously with FC Bayern München. This is also when the nickname "the Foals" took hold. What few people know: it carries a double meaning. It refers to the "young foals" because Weisweiler fielded a squad with an average age of just 21.5 at times — and to the horse on the city's coat of arms.

What is also easily forgotten: Gladbach won the 1970/71 German championship despite losing two points at the "green table." Neither the team, nor the coach, nor the fans were at fault — the local authority was. During the home match against Werder Bremen, Herbert Laumen crashed into the goal net after an aerial duel with Bremen goalkeeper Günter Bernard, the post buckled, and the match had to be abandoned. The Bundesliga awarded the points to Bremen.

The phase from 2004 to 2010: The years from 2004 to 2010 were a period of embarrassing management blunders by the club leadership. The club showed no coherent strategy in squad building, sporting director appointments or coaching hires, and became the new KaDeWe — a department store of misguided transfer spending.

0-11 against Glasgow Rangers: In the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1960, Gladbach received a brutal introduction to international football in their very first competitive European tie. They lost 3-0 at home to Glasgow Rangers, then suffered an 8-0 hammering in Glasgow.

Failure in Madrid: In the 1985/86 UEFA Cup round of 16, Borussia Mönchengladbach faced Real Madrid. The Foals made short work of the first leg, winning 5-1. Yet they were eliminated. In the return, Santillana scored in the 89th minute for Real Madrid to make it 4-0 on the night — a collapse for the ages.

DFB-Pokalfinale 1992: Nach einem gewonnenen Elfmeterkrimi im Halbfinale gegen Bayer Leverkusen trifft BMG im DFB-Pokalendspiel im Jahr 1992 auf den damaligen Zweitligisten Hannover 96. Man verliert nach einem 0:0 nach Verlängerung im Elfmeterschießen. Eine Mega-Blamage zum denkbar ungünstigsten Zeitpunkt.

The 1998/99 season: Gladbach have been relegated twice, each time as bottom of the table. In 1998/99, Borussia won 3-0 against Schalke 04 on the opening day and stood at the top of the table for the last time in 13 years. What followed was a catastrophic campaign ending in the drop.

Borussia Mönchengladbach's greatest successes: Gladbach won the German championship in 1969/70 and 1970/71, achieving the first-ever Bundesliga title defence. The team then won three consecutive championships — 1974/75, 1975/76 and 1976/77. Gladbach are two-time UEFA Cup winners (1975, 1979) and three-time DFB-Pokal winners (1960, 1973, 1995).

UEFA Cup 1973, 1980 and European Cup 1977: Three times they came agonisingly close. The international final appearances in the UEFA Cup in 1973 and 1980, and in the European Cup in 1977, also rank among the club's great achievements. In 1977, they lost the European Cup final to Liverpool — a defeat that still stings.

Fortune in Düsseldorf's Rheinstadion: The last international title came rather fortunately. On May 23, 1979, Borussia beat Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Cup final in Düsseldorf. A 1-0 win (first leg 1-1) saw Udo Lattek's side lift the trophy — thanks to a fortunate penalty decision.

DFB-Pokal winners 1973: In 1973, Borussia Mönchengladbach beat 1. FC Köln 2-1 after extra time in what is widely considered the greatest DFB-Pokal final in history. The decisive goal was scored by Günter Netzer, who substituted himself on in his final match for Gladbach, three minutes into extra time — one of the most iconic moments in German football.

DFB-Pokal winners 1960: The first national title — and the most surprising — was not won by Borussia Mönchengladbach, but by a club with a different name: the 1960 DFB-Pokal was won under the old city name München-Gladbach. On October 5, 1960, Borussia defeated Karlsruher SC 3-2 in the final.

Robert Enke — death by suicide: In 1999, Robert Enke left Borussia Mönchengladbach for Benfica Lisbon. From there he moved to FC Barcelona, Beşiktaş Istanbul and finally Hannover 96. In November 2009, Robert Enke took his own life. His death shook German football to its core and sparked a national conversation about mental health in professional sport.

Henning Jensen — death at 68: As a player, Henning Jensen won almost everything. Two German championships with Borussia Mönchengladbach (1975 and 1976), two Spanish titles with Real Madrid (1978 and 1979) and the 1980 European Championship with Denmark. The Dane died in 2017 at the age of 68.

Steve Gohouri — death at 34: Steve Gohouri died at 34. The former Gladbach player had been missing for more than three weeks before his body was found on the Rhine bank near Krefeld on December 31, 2015, according to Düsseldorf police. The autopsy could not conclusively determine the cause of death.

Marcelo Pletsch — the Brazilian enforcer: Marcelo Pletsch played for Borussia Mönchengladbach from 1999 to 2005. Towards the end of the 2004/05 season, he was suspended for comments damaging to the club. Pletsch made headlines with a foul on Werder Bremen's Ailton that became one of the most notorious tackles in Bundesliga history.

Shmuel Rosenthal — the first Israeli: Shmuel Rosenthal was the first Israeli professional to play in the Bundesliga. In 1968 he represented Israel at the Olympic Games in Mexico, and in 1970 at the World Cup — also in Mexico. He played for Gladbach from 1972 to 1974, a pioneering figure in German football history.

Borussia Mönchengladbach wird zwei Mal bei internationalen Spielen betrogen.

Europapokal der Landesmeister 1971/72

In the 1971/72 European Cup, the club were eliminated by Inter Milan. In Milan, the team around captain Günter Netzer lost 4-2; the return in Berlin ended 0-0 with Borussia missing a penalty. The Berlin match was already the third fixture, because the original home leg in Mönchengladbach was annulled — the infamous cola can incident.

Borussia Mönchengladbach were leading 2-1 after barely a third of the match in front of 28,000 spectators. In the 29th minute, a scuffle broke out near the touchline between Gladbach's Ludwig "Luggi" Müller and Inter star Roberto Boninsegna. A drinks can flew from the stands towards Boninsegna. The Italian collapsed dramatically.

"Luggi" Müller disagreed. "Suddenly a can came flying and hit Boninsegna on the shoulder," the defender recalled. "I kicked the can on the ground and noticed it was empty." At the urging of teammates, Boninsegna had thrown himself to the ground. And when he tried to get up, Inter's medical staff pushed him back down — the theatre had begun.

Borussia: The name Borussia is the Latin word for Prussia, to which the Lower Rhine city of Mönchengladbach (then: München Gladbach) belonged when the club was founded.

October 31, 1969 — where it all began: On Reformation Day, "the Foals" beat Alemannia Aachen 5-1 at home and overtook champions FC Bayern München (who lost 1-2 at home to Hertha BSC) to go top of the Bundesliga for the first time on matchday 11 of the 1969/70 season.

The cult ground: The Bökelberg stadium, Gladbach's cult venue, was converted back into a football ground by the British occupiers after the Second World War. It had briefly served as a tank workshop and was extensively damaged during the war. In 1914, Borussia Mönchengladbach acquired the site on Bökelstraße — the beginning of a love affair between club and ground that lasted nearly a century.

A "bank robber" named Helmut Grashoff: In July 1962, Borussia appointed Fritz Langner as new coach, who had won the western German championship with Westfalia Herne in 1959. The new leadership then sold international Albert Brülls for a record fee of 250,000 DM to FC Modena — much to the new coach's dismay.

Highest Bundesliga win: Gladbach's record Bundesliga victory came with the 12-0 demolition on matchday 34 of the 1977/78 season. It was a futile win. The championship went to Köln, coached by Hennes Weisweiler, who still had the better goal difference. It was one of four(!) double-digit victories by the Foals.