I n TERVIEWS
“I HAD TO AVOID
EVERYTHInG ABOUT
LOSInG TO UnITED
I n ’99 FOR YEARS.
I JUST FELT DEAD”
A year after that Champions League win,
you joined Bayern Munich. Was it a tough
decision to leave Dortmund?
After the Champions League win, I became
sporting director at Dortmund for a year. But
I didn’t enjoy that, as I was always a coach at
heart. Franz Beckenbauer called and asked if
I’d coach Bayern, and I immediately said yes.
It was tough, of course, leaving Dortmund for
their rivals, but I couldn’t say no.In your first season at Bayern you reached
another Champions League final, a historic
game courtesy of Manchester United’s two
stoppage-time goals. What was it like to
have the trophy snatched in that manner?
It’s difficult to describe. I was dead after the
match and it was impossible to understand
how everything we’d done could be lost in
the final two minutes. It was a nightmare for
everyone involved – for the coaches, players
and fans. I’ve never been able to watch that
match again. I had to avoid everything about
it for years afterwards.Redemption came in 2001 as Bayern beat
Valencia on penalties. Was that even more
special because of what happened in ’99?
The 2001 final was harder for me because I’d
lost one final and was afraid to lose another,
but it was very special to win the competition
again. It meant I became the second boss –
after Ernst Happel – to lift the trophy with two
different teams. To have achieved that with
two German clubs was like a fairytale for me.Bayern won seven trophies in six seasons
during your first spell as coach there. Just
how good was that team?
We had a strong collective and were a real
unit. For any successful side, one of the most
important things you need is for each player
to totally identify with the team and club, and
we did that. We had a few wonderful, world-
class players, too – the likes of Giovane Elber,
Lothar Matthaus and Oliver Kahn.You could have taken the Germany job in
2004, but turned it down. Why?
I had a conversation with the DFB president,
and Beckenbauer also called me about it. But
after six years at Bayern, I felt burned out and
couldn’t take another big role. I was 55 and
planning to retire. It was the correct attitude
and right decision, even in hindsight.Three years later, though, you
were back for a second spell
with Bayern. What coaxed you
out of retirement?
It was a spontaneous decision,
as I’d planned to never manage
a team again. [Bayern president]
Uli Hoeness called me in January
2007 and said I had to come and
help Bayern because they were in
a bad place, so I said yes straight
away. If I’d taken a little longer to
consider it, I probably would have
said no. But it proved to be the right choice –
it was fun to work with world-class guys like
Franck Ribery and Luca Toni.You’re part of an exclusive club of bosses
who have won the Champions League with
two clubs. Could you ever have imagined so
much success when you started coaching?
I couldn’t have expected I’d accomplish all
this as a coach. I actually wanted to become
a teacher after my playing career ended and
obtained qualifications for that, but I started
managing in Switzerland and kept on doing
it for years. To have done what I have fills me
with pride. I’m very grateful for being able to
achieve those feats and to have lifted some
of the world’s best trophies.
You worked in Switzerland for eight years
before securing your first Bundesliga job.
What were those formative seasons like?
My first coaching job was in 1983 at SC Zug
in Switzerland’s second division. I was afraid
to coach for the first time. Zug were a really
basic club, but I won the second division with
them in my first year. Thanks to that success,
I went to Aarau, who were a bigger club, and
stayed there for four years before eventually
joining Grasshoppers, who were on a different
level. We won four trophies in my time there,
including back-to-back titles in 1990 and ’91.
That earned you a big move to Dortmund
where you enjoyed huge success, winning
two Bundesliga titles and the Champions
League. What was the secret?
I don’t think there are any secrets in football
- you just need to build your own identity as
a club. The most important thing for me was
to respect everyone, whether it’s a star player
or a staff member. I also introduced pressing
to Germany when that wasn’t the norm, and
took a risky approach tactically by deploying
a 5-3-2 formation. German football was still
stuck playing sweepers and man-markers at
the time. I moved to zonal marking and used
offside traps, which were new too. Thankfully
it worked out!Your most famous Dortmund moment was
winning the 1996-97 Champions League –
defeating Manchester United in the semi-
finals and holders Juventus in the final.
What are your memories?
Both games against Manchester United were
extremely difficult. The first leg at home was
very even, but we arrived at Old Trafford with
a 1-0 lead. There, they were the better team,
but Jurgen Kohler cleared the ball off the line
when it looked like Eric Cantona would score
and we hung on for a lucky
1-0 win. In the final, Juve
were big favourites – they
hadn’t lost in Europe for
over a year – but we put
in a superb performance.
Paul Lambert was superb
and had Zinedine Zidane
in his back pocket. Paul
had a simple style – no
tricks, but you’d struggle
to find a footballer who
worked as hard. We were
able to nullify Juve’s game
and had the fortune we needed. We brought
Lars Ricken on as a substitute and told him to
get us a goal to win it... fortunately it was our
lucky night. [Laughs]Interview Chris EvansThe two-time Champions League winner
talks Paul Lambert’s no-nonsense genius- and why he rejected the Germany job
FourFourTwo July 2022 91OTTMAR HITZFELD