Borussia Mönchengladbach

Formation

Borussia Mönchengladbach was formed as FC Borussia in 1900 in the Eicken district of Mönchengladbach. The name "Borussia" derives from the Latinized form of Prussia, the kingdom in which the city of Mönchengladbach was situated from 1815. By 1912, Die Borussen found itself in the Verbandsliga, at the time the highest division the club could play in.

In March 1914, the club purchased De Kull, the ground on which the Bökelbergstadion would be built. The First World War halted the progress of both the stadium and FC Borussia, but by late 1917 the team had begun to play games once more. In 1919, FC Borussia merged with another local club, Turnverein Germania 1889, becoming 1899 VfTuR M.Gladbach. The club achieved its first major success in 1920, defeating Kölner BC 3–1 to win the Westdeutsche Meisterschaft final.

The union between Germania and Borussia only lasted a matter of two years; the club was thereafter known as Borussia VfL 1900 e.V. M.Gladbach.^[7]

1933–1945: Football under the Third Reich

Following the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, the German league system was reformed to consist of 16 Gauligen – Gladbach found themselves playing first in the Gauliga Niederrhein, and later in various Bezirksklassen (district leagues). Also while under the Third Reich, Mönchengladbach's first ever international player was capped; Heinz Ditgens playing in a 9–0 win over Luxembourg for Germany in the 1936 Olympic Games. After the outbreak of World War II, play continued as usual, other than for the 1944–45 season.

Post War until 1959

Historical chart of Borussia Mönchengladbach league performance after WWII

Eventually, Mönchengladbach resumed play in June 1946, gaining successive promotions to the Landesliga Niederrhein (the regional second tier) in 1949 and the top flight, the Oberliga West, in 1950. Following many years of promotions and relegations, Borussia won their first Oberliga title in the 1958–59 season.

Ascent to the Bundesliga

In August 1960, Borussia Mönchengladbach defeated 1. FC Köln in the West German Cup. Weeks later, the club won the DFB-Pokal, clinching their first national honours after defeating Karlsruher SC 3–2 in the final. The following year, the club took on the now-familiar name Borussia VfL Mönchengladbach after the city of München-Gladbach became Mönchengladbach. However, further honours would have to wait a decade. Borussia's results in the ten years leading up to the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963 were not strong enough to earn them admission into the ranks of the nation's new top flight professional league, and so the club played in the second tier, the Regionalliga West.

Mönchengladbach enjoyed its first taste of the Bundesliga in the 1965–66 season, earning promotion alongside future powerhouse Bayern Munich. The two clubs would go on to engage in a fierce struggle as they challenged each other for domestic supremacy throughout the 1970s. Bayern took first blood in the struggle for supremacy between the two: winning the Bundesliga championship in 1969. Mönchengladbach struck back immediately in the next season with a championship of their own and followed up with a second title in 1971, becoming the first Bundesliga club ever to successfully defend their title.

1970s: Borussia's golden decade

Bayern Munich then became the first club to win three consecutive titles, with Borussia finishing only a point behind the champions in 1974. Die Fohlen were able to take some consolation in a 2–1 victory over 1. FC Köln in 1973 to win their second DFB-Pokal. Under coach Hennes Weisweiler, the young side displayed an offensive-minded philosophy and powerful play that attracted fans from all over Germany. The team stayed on the attack and matched Bayern's achievement with three consecutive titles of their own from 1975 to 1977. Mönchengladbach lost the 1977 final of the European Cup to Liverpool, but also made four appearances in the UEFA Cup with wins in 1975 and 1979 against losses in 1973 and 1980. The club's spectacular run had come to an end with eight trophies to their credit, and although they would continue to be competitive for many years, success would be much harder to come by.^[3]

1980 and beyond

Borussia Mönchengladbach against Borussia Dortmund in April 2012

Mönchengladbach's golden era ended in the 1980s as the club had to sell many of its best players to keep its finances in order, and without talented coaches like Hennes Weisweiler and Udo Lattek, it was not possible to compete with Bayern Munich. Even so, they managed to finish most seasons in the upper half of the league table, and in 1984, Die Fohlen were part of a four way race to the Meisterschale – the Bundesliga championship – finishing one point ahead of Bayern, and tied on points with Hamburger SV and champions VfB Stuttgart, but behind on goal difference. In the same season, Mönchengladbach also lost the DFB-Pokal final to Bayern Munich on penalties, Lothar Matthäus and Norbert Ringels both missing from the spot after the game originally ended all square at 1–1. Matthäus subsequently joined Bayern Munich for a then-record fee of 2.25 million DM, leading some fans to question whether he had deliberately missed his penalty.^[8]

The team's performance slipped significantly in the 1990s and Die Fohlen soon found themselves struggling in the lower half of the Bundesliga table. They lost another DFB-Pokal on penalties – this time to Hannover 96 — before winning their most recent trophy to date with a 3–0 DFB-Pokal win over VfL Wolfsburg in 1995. Finally, in 1999, Gladbach were relegated to 2. Bundesliga, where they would spend two seasons. Upon returning to the Bundesliga in 2001, Mönchengladbach remained uninspired as they continued to be mired in the bottom half of the league.

In 2004, Mönchengladbach appointed Dick Advocaat, who had guided the Netherlands national team to the semi-finals of UEFA Euro 2004 and was a successful manager at Rangers, as their new coach. However, Advocaat was unable to turn the team's fortunes and resigned in April of the following year. Former Mönchengladbach player and German international Horst Köppel was appointed caretaker for the remaining five fixtures of the season. Köppel had managed the club's reserves since leaving Borussia Dortmund in June 2004. For the 2006–07 season, legendary Mönchengladbach player and coach Jupp Heynckes was appointed as team coach.

Borussia had taken steps to improve their financial situation with the construction of a new state-of-the-art stadium called Borussia-Park with a permitted capacity of 59,771 spectators (limited to 54,067 for Bundesliga games and to 46,249 for international games). The club had long been hindered by playing in a much smaller and older facility (Bökelberg, capacity 34,500) and with the opening of the new stadium in 2004 can look forward to increased revenues through higher ticket sales and the ability to host lucrative international matches.

On the 31st matchday of the 2006–07 season, Borussia Mönchengladbach were relegated from the Bundesliga after fellow relegation fighters Arminia Bielefeld upset Werder Bremen 3–2 while Mönchengladbach lost 1–0 at home to VfB Stuttgart. They were promoted back to the Bundesliga on the 32nd match-day of the 2007–08 season after winning the match against SV Wehen 3–0.

Former manager Lucien Favre

Under coach Lucien Favre, who took over in January 2011, Borussia Mönchengladbach has in recent years shown ambitions to re-establish themselves in the top regions of the Bundesliga. In the 2010–11 season, after a disastrous first half of the season, Borussia Mönchengladbach managed to narrowly avoid relegation through the post-season relegation play-offs. The following season, 2011–12, followed this up with a strong season in which they were for much of the year in contention for the championship and eventually finished in fourth place. They missed out on qualification to the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League after losing 4–3 on aggregate to Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv in the playoff round. During the 2012–13 Bundesliga season, after losing some key players, notably Marco Reus who was voted player of the year in the Bundesliga in the previous season, Borussia Mönchengladbach still contended for the international places until the last match day, eventually finishing in eighth place.

In the 2013–14 Bundesliga season, they had another very successful year, achieving an excellent third-place after the first half of the season and finishing the season in sixth place, entering them into the 2014–15 Europa League competition at the play-off stage. They finished the 2014–15 Bundesliga season in third place, saving the club a place for direct qualification to the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage. The club found itself in a tough group^[9] together with Juventus, Manchester City and Sevilla and although they finished bottom of the group, they claimed a respectable points tally of five, claiming draws home and away against Juventus and defeating eventual Europa League winners Sevilla 4–2 at home.

After a poor start to the 2015–16 Bundesliga season, including five defeats, Lucien Favre surprisingly resigned^[10] and was replaced with André Schubert as interim coach. The club's fortunes immediately changed, as it won six-straight Bundesliga matches and eventually finishing the season in fourth position, earning qualification to the Champions League for a second successive season.

In the 2016–17 season, Borussia drew a difficult group in the Champions League, but managed to finish in third place above Celtic and qualify for the UEFA Europa League knockout phase. However, after a promising start in the Bundesliga, the club experienced a poor run of form exacerbated by injuries, and had dropped to the 14th position by the winter break. As a result, André Schubert resigned and was replaced by ex-VfL Wolfsburg manager Dieter Hecking. Hecking began with three wins in four Bundesliga matches as Borussia rose to ninth place and also earned a place in the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal.

Former head coaches

Current squad

As of 15 August 2018^[12]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Yann Sommer (2nd vice-captain) 2 DF Mandela Egbo 3 DF Michael Lang 5 MF Tobias Strobl 6 MF Christoph Kramer 7 MF Patrick Herrmann 8 MF Denis Zakaria 10 FW Thorgan Hazard 11 FW Raffael 13 FW Lars Stindl (captain) 14 FW Alassane Pléa 15 DF Louis Beyer 16 MF Ibrahima Traoré 17 DF Oscar Wendt (Vice-captain) 18 FW Josip Drmić 19 MF Fabian Johnson

No. Position Player 20 FW Julio Villalba 21 GK Tobias Sippel 22 MF László Bénes 23 MF Jonas Hofmann 24 DF Tony Jantschke 26 FW Torben Müsel 27 MF Mickaël Cuisance 28 DF Matthias Ginter 29 DF Mamadou Doucouré 30 DF Nico Elvedi 32 MF Florian Neuhaus 35 GK Moritz Nicolas 37 MF Keanan Bennetts 38 DF Marcel Benger 40 DF Andreas Poulsen 42 DF Florian Mayer

Retired numbers

• 12 – the 12th man, dedicated to fans

Loans

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Coaching and backroom staff

Role	Nation	Name
Head coach	Germany	Dieter Hecking
Assistant coach	Germany	Dirk Bremser
Assistant coach	Germany	Frank Geideck
Goalkeeping coach	Germany	Uwe Kamps
Team doctor	Germany	Dr. Heribert Ditzel
Team doctor and orthopedic surgeon	Germany	Dr. Stefan Hertl
Team doctor and orthopedic surgeon	Germany	Dr. Stefan Porten
Athletic trainer	Germany	Alexander Mouhcine
Physiotherapist	Germany	Andreas Bluhm
Physiotherapist	Germany	Dirk Müller
Physiotherapist	Poland	Adam Szordykowski

Domestic

Bundesliga:

• Winners: 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77
• Runners-up: 1973–74, 1977–78

2. Bundesliga:

• Winners: 2007–08

DFB-Pokal:

• Winners: 1959–60, 1972–73, 1994–95
• Runners-up: 1983–84, 1991–92

German Supercup:

• (Unofficial winners): 1977

European

European Cup:

• Runners-up: 1976–77

UEFA Cup:

• Winners: 1974–75, 1978–79
• Runners-up: 1972–73, 1979–80

International

Intercontinental Cup:

• Runners-up: 1977

Youth

German Under 17 Champions:

• Winners: 1981

Under 17 Bundesliga West

• Winners: 2009

Double

• 1974–75: League and UEFA Cup

Most appearances

#	Name	Matches
1°	Berti Vogts	419
2°	Uwe Kamps	390
3°	Herbert Wimmer	366
4°	Christian Hochstätter	339
5°	Hans-Günter Bruns	331
6°	Wolfgang Kleff	321
7°	Hans-Jörg Criens	290
8°	Jupp Heynckes	283
9°	Michael Klinkert	274
10°	Martin Schneider	266

Top scorers

#	Name	Goals
1°	Jupp Heynckes	195
2°	Herbert Laumen	97
3°	Hans-Jörg Criens	92
4°	Günter Netzer	82
5°	Uwe Rahn	81
6°	Allan Simonsen	76
7°	Frank Mill	71
8°	Hans-Günter Bruns	61
9°	Martin Dahlin	60
10°	Wilfried Hannes	58