Borussia Dortmund club legend Patrick Owomoyela, who featured 76 times with the club over a five year span, granted us an exclusive interview this past week, and the conversation included a multitude of topics. The former German international was in town to promote BVB’s clash with Liverpool July 19 at Notre Dame Stadium.
In part one we touched upon the impact Christian Pulisic, the face of the US Soccer, might have with his new club Chelsea. In part two we touched up on Mats Hummels coming back to Dortmund, and the club’s transfer window.
In the third and final installment here, Owomoyela covers two German born managers named Jurgen- Klopp and Klinsman.
After all, the friendly in South Bend will certainly be the Jurgen Klopp Cup! And the Liverpool manager was Owomoyela’s boss the whole time that he was at BVB. Klopp is a very colorful character, and his presence, more than any other individual, adds intrigue to this preseason match, one that is sure to further the rivalry between the two teams.
“He’s just the perfect coach in my opinion, but to me what makes him special is how he makes 24 players work together and pull the same strings,” said the 39-year-old Hamburg native.
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“He’s really authentic, which makes it easy to see what he’s telling you, what he wants you to do.”
Klopp, who is often credited with popularizing the football philosophy known as Gegenpressing, led BVB to two Bundesliga titles, a domestic double and a Champions League runner-up finish.
“His specialty is when he wants to motivate you, to talk to you instantly you will have pictures in your head, or a movie in your head about what it should be like or could be like,” Owomoyela added.
Regarding Klinsmann, Owomoyela debuted for his national side in an Asian tour, playing 90 minutes in a 3–0 win over Japan, on 16 December 2004.
“Jurgen Klinnsman was more of a motivator, the overall boss, but he had Joachim Low doing the technical and tactical stuff on the pitch,” the right sided defender/midfielder said of the three years that the 54-year-old led Die Mannschaft.
“What Jurgen Klopp does by himself, Jurgen Klinnsman and Joachim Low did together. I think he did a great job, he had a young team. He brought new players to the German national team.”
We also asked him why he thinks it didn’t ultimately work out for Klinsmann here in the U.S. After five years in charge, Klinsmann was sacked in 2016.
“I don’t know what he did to the U.S. team I’m quite sure he tried to do the same thing because he’s always thinking a little ahead,” said the man capped 11 times by Germany.
“I just don’t know what happened and why they didn’t give him more time to follow his plan.”
Owomoyela also gave his outlook on the upcoming season for Ballspiel-Verein Borussia (Borussia club for ball games):
“There’s only one step more you can take and it’s always hard, it’s always Bayern you have to beat, we know that, we’re not stupid, but we have a good squad, we have a good team overall, we have a good coach so it could be another year where we really contest for it, at least”
“I’m thinking we can do better than we can do last year, which would be a fantastic outcome.”
“I’m greatly looking forward to next year.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, also contributes to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.