Shortly before his 75th birthday on December 30th, Berti Vogts was far from being mildly aged. The 1974 world champion and former national coach wants to "have nothing more to do" with the club leaders of Borussia Mönchengladbach, the club in which the 1.68 meter long defender rose to a size in German football. "The topic is over for me," he emphasized in an interview with the editorial cooperation G14plus, a network of several German regional newspapers. Only with his friend and long-time colleague Rainer Bonhof, Gladbacher and world champion like him, Vogts remains on friendly terms. Although Bonhof is vice president of the five-time German champions. “But I don't talk to him about the club,” said Vogts in the interview, which at times reads like a statement.
Vogts, who stayed with the “Fohlen” over his entire fourteen-year professional career (1965 to 1979) and rose to a football hero of the working class alongside other icons such as the artistic nature of Günter Netzer or the massive executor Jupp Heynckes, has been with Rolf Königs since 2004 President of Borussia, to speak badly. First of all, Vogts, as an unyielding right-wing defender nicknamed "Terrier", blames him for the fact that his home club "doesn't want to have much to do with its legends anymore". A representation that Königs, Bonhof and others in the Lower Rhine cult club will probably soon be able to contradict. Vogts, however, attaches importance to the statement that "I always preferred telling the truth to diplomatic behavior". Especially when he feels that he has been treated unfairly.
Once a terrier, always a terrier. With his bite and intransigence, this Rhinelander, who was orphaned after the untimely death of his parents at the age of twelve, has become a luminary in the area of football, where people toil and tidy up particularly eagerly. Vogts, who was not even appointed to a district selection as a youth, was something like the popular counterpoint to the great football designers like Netzer or the Munich free spirit and libero Franz Beckenbauer, whom he met during most of his time as a player 96 internationals was loyal to your service.
The ideal mix of pioneers, including the defensive midfielder Bonhof, thought leaders like Beckenbauer or Cologne's Wolfgang Overath and a brilliant accomplisher like Munich's Gerd Müller made the 1974 world champion. And also Borussia from Mönchengladbach, which dominated the Bundesliga together with FC Bayern in the 1970s. The fact that in his provocative interview Vogts also regretted “not listening to Franz Beckenbauer”, who at the time wanted to bring him “to Munich and later to Cosmos New York”, rounded off his angry birthday interview.
Vogts, who argue rhetorically more like a woodcut, can be resentful and has remained true to his mistrust of people who disagree with him.
Hans-Hubert Vogts, who fought hard and with an iron will for his undeniable successes under his club coach Hennes Weisweiler and under the then national coach Helmut Schön, has always remained far from the lightness of being.
As quickly as the indomitable pioneer won the hearts of down-to-earth football fans as a player, the same Vogts had to fight as hard as national coach for a little recognition and respect on his second career path.