'I cried my eyes out'

For the 40 Years in the Bundesliga anniversary, that Bayer 04 celebrated alongside the home game against Schalke on the weekend of 10 to 12 May, many familiar faces joined in the celebrations at the BayArena – the club invited the promotion heroes as well as Bayer 04 All-Stars, voted for by the fans, to the celebrations – including Christoph Daum. We took the opportunity to interview the former Werkself coach for the Werks11 magazine and took himon a trip down memory lane.

Mr Daum, in the fan poll for the Bayer 04 Bundesliga All-Stars you had the highest number of votes amongst the coaches by far. Does that make you feel proud?

Daum: Above all, I see that as recognition and approval for all the players I was able to work with. And I can't say thank you enough to my fellow coaches Roland Koch and Peter Herrman as well as the staff who played a big part in our success. Whether that was people from our medical section, like Tscholli (physiotherapist Dieter Trzolek, ed.) or our kit men Klaus Zöller and Harald Wohner. I could list loads of names. At management level, I'm grateful to Reiner Calmund, Rudi Völler and Wolfgang Holzhäuser. Together we created a new image for the Werkself. A successful and popular image. And, of course, I'd like to thank the fans who gave the team a decisive lift with their support in many, many games. I remember well what I was told when I joined Leverkusen: You have to know you have 34 away games at Bayer 04. That changed incredibly during my time. A fan culture sprang up and the first of choreography events were started. There was a great feeling of a shared identity and I tried to lead the way.

What were your expectations when you started at Bayer 04 in 1996? And what was your perception of the situation at the club back then?

Daum: The management said to me at the time: The main target is we don't want to have anything to do with relegation again. I was surprised and I said to myself: I'm not going to a club whose main desire is not wanting to get relegated. I definitely wanted to play in Europe again. Of course, a lot of people thought typical Daum. But I was serious and I said: Now is the start of a new era and I want us to finish in a European spot. Nobody objected. But it was my target to penetrate the leading group including Dortmund and Bayern and play for the title as well as being one of the best teams over the long term.

Pretty ambitious targets after nearly getting relegated in 1996…

Daum: Obviously, I couldn't predict we would actually be the second team in Germany at the start of my time at Leverkusen. I just knew the club had everything needed for that. Of all the clubs where I've worked, Bayer 04 Leverkusen was the best. Why? Because the first question was never: What does it cost? Instead, the question was: What's the point of it? What does that improve in terms of success on the pitch? When I was able to back up my ideas and requests then everybody got behind it. Whether it was a question of transfers or infrastructure changes. It was always about: How can we continually improve and be even more professional? We provided passion and excitement where I lead the way and also passed that on to others. We played creative, flexible, exciting and successful football - both at home and abroad.

At the same time, you didn't exactly have a star-studded team in 1996.

Daum: The crucial factor was to form a team from the players available that really bonded and had a feeling of togetherness to achieve something special. I needed a hungry team where everybody gave their all for everybody else. I held lots of one-to-one meetings and organised lots of team activities. That meant we grew together as a group and were able to more than make up for what was lacking in terms of individual quality through our determination as a team. Borussia Dortmund came to us on the first matchday in 1996/97 as champions of Germany. Our 4-2 win against Dortmund marked the birth of a special team. A team with players like Hans-Peter Lehnhoff – he was incredibly important to us. Or Ulf Kirsten who got off to a flying start with us again. We didn't have any Germany internationals in our squad. Do you know who was the first international for us?

I’ll have to think about that one…

Daum: You won't guess it – it was Jan Heintze who received the first international call-up – he played for Denmark at the age of 33. Later there were others who were called up again like Christian Wörns and Ulf Kirsten. We provided five Germany internationals. On top of that, I look at how Emerson developed, after we brought him in as highly talented young player from Porto Allegre, and he went on to become the captain of Brazil! I have to play a huge compliment to Norbert Ziegler who watched these players through my eyes and he knew exactly how they fitted into the Bayer 04/Christoph Daum plan. Not many people knew Emerson when we signed him. And the same could be said about Michael Ballack who joined as a young player from Kaiserslautern. We we helped him develop into one of the leading players in German football.

In addition to Lehnhoff and Heintze, Rüdiger Vollborn was one of the older, more experienced players. He remembers that you made the team work extremely hard in the 1996/97 pre-season. There were three sessions every day. And the morning run lasted exactly 32 minutes. He asked you: Coach, why is it always 32 minutes rather than 30 minutes? You answered with a broad grin: Because I say so…

Daum: Let's take Rüdiger Vollborn first: He was a godsend for us. Actually he was in the running to be our number one but then I opted for Dirk Heinen. But I said, Rüdiger: Your job is to keep putting pressure on Dirk while supporting him at the same time. Rüdiger kept the competition amongst the goalkeepers going. He trained like a madman. On the other hand, he supported Dirk unconditionally. That led to Dirk Heinen having a sensational season. Let's move on to the 32 minutes: Of course, it's just a random number that doesn't mean anything. But you have to see what pace you run the 32 minutes to produce the appropriate response in your body to ensure basic stamina. And at the end of the day, that means you can recover quickly within a game or from one match to the next. I tried it before with 20 minutes and then with 35 minutes and again and again carried out blood tests. The 32-minute run proved to achieve the best results. It was just enough without being too much.

If you ask Werkself fans what image they associate with Christoph Daum then a lot of then say: Christoph down in a light blue suit. What was special about that extravagant item of clothing?

Daum: (he laughs) I got onto the Tagesschau TV news in that suit. That move was a real media event and that's probably why it's still so well-known today. The background was as follows: Our new main sponsor avanza wanted to use a game to present something special. Somebody came up with the idea of Ulf Kirsten dying his hair avanza blue for this match. When I heard that, I just said: Have you lost your minds? That can't be right. Ulf, who always just gets stick, will be more of a target for the defenders if he dyes his hair blue. I rejected it outright and insisted somebody come up with another idea. A day later they said to me: Okay, don't wear a tracksuit for the game but instead an avanza blue suit on the bench. There were a couple of days to go before the game. The tailor came on Tuesday, took the measurements and the suit was ready within 24 hours. Only a couple of adjustments were needed at the fitting on Wednesday. On Thursday the light blue gear was in my office. I thought, okay you can't shock the team and suddenly turn up in a suit on Saturday. So I wore the fine outfit for the team meeting on Friday. As I entered the room, laughter broke out surreptitiously. I suppose the players thought: What's the coach up to? I just said: Just shut up, I have to wear this thing on Saturday and I just wanted you to get used to it. I stood there crestfallen in light blue. Finally, I did it on Saturday happily for the club and the main sponsor. The good thing was: The suit was later auctioned by a chain of hairdressers from northern Germany for a good cause and 40,000 Deutschmarks was raised. So everyone was a winner in the end. That's why I exposed myself to a ribbing in the press. Overall it was an absolutely successful PR event. And we won the game against Dortmund as well.

144 Bundesliga games as Bayer 04 coach, 76 wins, 44 drawers, 24 defeats – in terms of figures, that's the best record ever for a coach at Leverkusen.

Daum: But there's at least one too many defeats.

You mean the defeat at Unterhaching in the last game in the 1999/2000 season. Is that the most painful of your three runners-up finishes for Bayer 04?

Daum: Yes! Obviously we made a number of mistakes in the run-up. I remember very well that in the week before the game preparations for the title win were being planned everywhere all the time. And people were talking about what sort of title song we want at Bayer? I kept trying to maintain the focus. I was a lone voice in the wilderness and I didn't succeed.

In that situation, I’d do it differently today. I'd leave a day earlier and stay somewhere outside Munich. No way take a charter flight and definitely not stay in the same hotel as the fans. It was like going to championship celebration. I recognised the potential explosive nature but I underestimated it and didn't do enough to stop it. Physically and mentally the team was prepared for all eventualities – but there was just one thing I didn't think about: that we would go behind due to an own goal. How you react to that, I could have planned better and taken the appropriate measures. It was a really strange situation. One point would have been enough. The fact we put ourselves behind caused an additional problem.

And everything came flooding out with you too after the game…

Daum: Of course, Unterhaching was a massive disappointment and it took a long time to get over it. I cried my eyes out from the bottom of my heart. I wanted to be the strong one, wanted to keep my emotions under control. But then when I saw my son Marcel outside the dressing room, he looked at me with sad eyes and asked: Dad, why is football so cruel? I hugged him and we both cried. It really hit us. If you knew what we'd done over the whole year – and then just before the end, right before the finishing line you start to stumble. That really hurts. But it was also clear to me: We'll get back up again and it will make us stronger.

What significance do the four years at Bayer 04 have for you in your long and successful coaching career?

Daum: For me, it was my best time as a coach.

Interview by Christian Jacobs