Welcome Jürgen Röber

It's official. Jürgen Röber will be our new coach and replace Bert van Marwijk who was sacked on Sunday. Röber's contract is valid till June 2007 only. On Tuesday, just one day after Dortmund legend Ottmar Hitzfeld rejected a BVB offer, the new coach was introduced to the media.


Many supportes were over the weekend in 7th heaven, hoping for a five-star solution and that Watzke would lay Hitzfeld under the Christmas tree. Now it is Jürgen Röber, still a good solution as the new one is also a Christmas kid. Röber was born on December 25th, 1953 in former GDR in Gernorde in the Harz region, but grew up in Herten, Westphalia where his father worked as a miner.

As a professional player the holding midfielder started at Werder Bremen (1974-1980) before he joined Bayern München. He played there only 1 season, won the Bundesliga title and then left Germany. He had short stints with the Calgary Boomer and Nottingham Forest before he went back to Germany and played for Bayer Leverkusen. His career as a player ended with Ruhr Valley club Rot-Weiß Essen, where he changed from the pitch to the coaching zone.
And not really without success. Already in the second season he gained promotion to the 2. Bundesliga, what in return got him into the focus of 1. Bundesliga outfit VfB Stuttgart, who signed him in winter. But his most successful time was with Hertha BSC Berlin. He took the club to the 1. Bundesliga and even reached the Champions League. After 6 overall successful years in 2002 Hertha BSC chose to give former Schlacke coach Huub Stevens a chance.

Jürgen Röber joined VfL Wolfsburg and was coach of Partizan Beograd last season, where he resigned because of personal reasons. During all those breaks he studied further at big European clubs like Johann Cruyff's FC Barcelona.

At his last club he propagandised a modern attacking style of play. Adding to that he is known as a coach who is very open minded towards new training techniques. So at Hertha BSC Berlin there was also aerobic on the training agenda, to optimize motion sequences. Furthermore he had a mental coach years before Jürgen Klinsmann made such additional help popular. According to Jürgen Röber, whose biggest wish is to win a major title, his strength is internal communication. That's sounds plausible as he worked with divas like Marcelinho and D'Alessandro. He was influenced by coaches like Pal Cernai, back then in Munich, who was a famous tactical worker and introduced the zone defence to Germany's football.
Röber's assistant will be former BVB professional Bernd Storck. Röber made some statements about his precursor in an interview with German newspaper 'Welt': 'I have deep respect for Bert van Marwijk. He joined Dortmund in a difficult situation, but overcame all problems and formed a young, skilled team.' Let's hope, that Röber brings the team back on track.
Our new coach looks forward to his new work at a traditional club like Borussia Dortmund and remembers his matches in Westfalenstadion: 'I was quite a few times in this stadium and mostly lost. All teams that I coached had deep respect as the audience can be a massive factor. You could see that often in the style of play of my former teams.' Jürgen Röber is really looking forward to play in front of these supporters as a home team coach. But still he is very aware of the difficult task that lies ahead: 'We need to bring back the atmosphere that used to be in this stadium. That will only work out if the team shows, what the audience wants to see: fighting and giving everything for the club colours. That is were I will take them.' He and Bernd Storck want to give everything, to get the best out of the players. The team has huge potential to show attractive football with all those experienced and young players.

BVB's CEO Aki Watzke stretches out, that Röber is no emergency solution. 'We had parallel talks with Ottmar Hitzfeld and Jürgen Röber and informed both about this constellation. From the beginning there were only 2 options: Ottmar Hitzfeld and Jürgen Röber.' Hitzfeld, according to Watzke, is still a hero in Dortmund. It would have been careless to waste this chance. That Röber's contract expires next June doesn't mean that there is already a coach signed for next summer.
 

Geschrieben von jonam