Sometimes words seem small and superfluous after great deeds, it is the images and even more the emotions that count.
"What can you say about that?", Thomas Reis, the coach of VfL Bochum, asked himself after the 3-1 win against SV Sandhausen, which resulted in the Revierklub as the second division champion and returning to the Bundesliga after eleven years.
Fortunately, the team released Reis from his state of speechlessness, gave him a beer shower for the second time that afternoon and sang the season-end hit of those years: "Campeones, Campeones!"
The sweetest moments of this last match day in Bochum were already over: Robert Zulj's beautiful free-kick goal in the 87th minute to make it 3-1, which had dispelled the last doubts about the return to the Bundesliga. Or the final whistle, when the players sank happily on the grass, fought with tears, relieved from the gravity of a memorable football season. Or the handover of the championship trophy of the second division, which is somewhat disrespectfully called “rim” while Herbert Grönemeyer's “Bochum” was played.
This loving hymn to a city is one of the greatest stadium songs that exist in German football because many of Bochum's praised qualities also characterize VfL: “You are not a beauty / gray at work (...) Here, where the heart is still counts / not big money ”. "Goosebumps" covered his body, said Zulj.
Up to 7,000 people gathered around the venerable stadium on Castroper Strasse, and in the meantime there were riots. Late in the evening, the police drew a "shocking conclusion" in their report after there were injured people and ten people were taken into custody. But most of them celebrated peacefully, and the Bundesliga can look forward to the return of a club that has achieved a rare feat: VfL has become more attractive during its eleven years in the second division.
The Bochumers left as a gray mouse, they come back as a club that offers a football experience that more and more fans of the game are longing for. "The gray mouse is currently more personable than Juventus Turin," said board member Ilja Kaenzig recently. At VfL Bochum, with its stadium built in 1979, a purist football experience is still offered, while the game is increasingly being staged as an entertainment show for people with a need for spectacle, comfort and convenience at many other locations.
VfL meanwhile cultivates an image as a retro club, especially since this club is ascribed this mythical magic of Ruhr area football, which is a bit yellowed, but somehow still effective.
In addition, Reis presented himself as an old school football teacher.
In autumn 2019, the 47-year-old coach took over a team from Robin Dutt that was threatened with relegation and has now practically been promoted with the same squad.
Just like sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz, he has a past as a player at VfL, which also looks a bit old-fashioned.
And when asked about the reasons for the successful course of the season, Reis recently said that in contrast to other second division times at VfL there is now "clear leadership, that the players have a clear framework in which they move".
Simon Zoller, the team's top scorer with 15 goals, described Reis as a “hard edge”, an authoritarian style was an important aspect of the success. "Only football can write such stories," said captain Anthony Losilla, who is already 35 years old but has not yet played a single Bundesliga game. “I had to wait that long and I can do it with my club, VfL Bochum.” Losilla will stay with VfL just like most of the other players. The Bundesliga can therefore not only look forward to a club with a lot of charm, but also to a team that has grown at a healthy pace and is very stable.