Borussia Dortmund face Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday in a rematch of last season’s final – 27 years after their most recent triumph in the competition.
Dortmund last season reached the Champions League final for the first time since 2013, taking on Real Madrid at Wembley and pushing Carlo Ancelotti’s men close, only to ultimately lose 2-0.
After two games of this season’s competition, BVB lead the controversial new league phase after following a 3-0 win at Club Brugge with a 7-1 thrashing of Celtic, ahead of Tuesday’s trip to the Bernabeu. Real Madrid themselves lost their second match, 1-0 at Lille.
Borussia Dortmund legend has his say
Dortmund last won the Champions League in 1997, when Karl-Heinz Riedle scored twice in the final against Juventus in Munich – five years after another upset when Denmark beat Germany in the final of Euro 92.
Riedle would go on to have spells with Liverpool and Fulham in English football.
“If you’re in the Champions League final, it’s something really special,” the former striker tells FourFourTwo now. “Juventus had a really good team, with (Zinedine) Zidane, (Alessandro) Del Piero and so on. Nobody was putting a lot of money on us, but it was like Denmark, it’s only one game, anything can happen. We took our chance, and it was a special moment.”
Riedle now works as an ambassador for Borussia Dortmund, and recently travelled to Singapore to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its presence in Asia. A BVB office was opened in Singapore in 2014, as part of their quest to grow their profile on the continent as a whole.
That has involved first-team tours, legend matches, youth development programmes, fan clubs gatherings and viewing parties, as well as a Bundesliga initiative that gives Asian players the chance to train at top German academies.
Even though the England national team have just appointed a German manager in the shape of Thomas Tuchel, Riedle is aware that at domestic level, the Bundesliga still has some catching up to do with the Premier League, to grow their presence in different continents across the globe.
“It was an incredible experience, I mean it’s 10 years, that’s a great anniversary,” the 59-year-old said of his visit to Singapore.
“I’ve always enjoyed travelling there, we’ve visited so many countries, you share your experiences, you get new ideas of the culture, the people, to meet with them, so it’s been a great pleasure for me to come over for the last nine or 10 years now. We get in contact with sponsors, or we do something with the youth academies, so it’s not only limited to one thing.
“I love to go to south east Asia, or Asia in general – China or Japan, where we’ve been two or three times. You get a new feeling for people, for the culture, for everything.
“My colleagues like Roman Weidenfeller or Patrick Owomoyela also love to visit, because the people are so friendly to us. We had some brilliant games in Vietnam and Indonesia – I’m the oldest, so sometimes I play a little bit, but I do more on the coaching side.
“People are very interested in our club, in our country, but you can see that it’s still a long way to go for us, for the Bundesliga, because the Premier League is so far away from us at the moment. We close the gap a little bit more and more though, and that’s our aim.”
