Two Luca Toni goals won the game for Bayern. But coach Thomas Doll put him on the bench and played Christian Wörns (35) and Robert Kovac (34) at the heart of the defence. There was a talented centre-back in the squad, 19-year-old Mats Hummels. In 2008, for instance, Dortmund surprisingly reached the cup final against Bayern Munich. But it wasn't easy it took time and courage. Partly out of necessity, partly through conviction, the club decided to trust young, cheap or even homegrown players who would hopefully offset their lack of experience with passion and enthusiasm. In so doing, Borussia followed a model similar to that of the national team. Now Dortmund were forced to radically change their approach, something Bayern Munich never had to do in recent history. At 3.30pm – the time when most Bundesliga games kick off on a Saturday – the club was saved.īut that was only the beginning. After more than six hours of questions and explanations, the investors agreed to the bailout plan the club had drawn up. If they voted no, they were informed, Borussia Dortmund would be bankrupt with immediate effect. Finally, they were asked to agree to a deferring of these payments. Now they were being told that Dortmund could no longer meet the instalment agreement because there was no money left. These men and women had loaned the club money through an investment fund. On that Monday, 444 small investors came together in a building at Düsseldorf airport to listen to a Dortmund representative. Only a few weeks after Rudi Völler had stepped down as national coach and plunged the Germany team into a deep crisis, Dortmund's president was forced to resign and it became apparent that survival was at stake. The house of cards collapsed during 2003-04, when the club admitted to having accumulated debts totalling £100m. In a mixture of desperation and megalomania, Dortmund spent ridiculous amounts of money, epitomised by the fact that they are still the only German club listed on the stock exchange, together with chemical companies, internet startups and soft drink producers. The problem was that the only concept of how to go about this seemed to be to out-Bayern Bayern. Through large parts of the 1990s, Dortmund were desperately trying to become what the Bundesliga had until then failed to produce: a strong, perennial rival of Bayern Munich.

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