Just 15 minutes of the border with the Netherlands you find one of the most famous traditional clubs of Germany: Borussia Mönchengladbach. The famous Bökelbeen has been replaced by the new Borussia-Park, but in this leafy fart of the Rhine-Ruhr region there's always a touch of football nearby.
The Borussia-Park is a relatively new stadium, built to live up with all the requirements of the modern times. For fans of the old stadium it was a hard pill to swallow, but it did give Gladbach the chance to double their attendances. There's place for almost 55.000 people in the Borussia-Park, which isn't really special from the outside but a lovely football stadium from the inside.
The most important place in the club's history was obviously Stadion am Bökelberg, demolished in 2006. When you take the Bökelstraße from the city centre, you'll find on the corner with the Sachsenstraße the ‘Borussia Denkmal’ in honor of the old stadium. But there's more. Enter the street 'Inde Kull' and take at the height of nr. 17 the footpath to your right. Suddenly you're in a park which has suspiciously looks of a football stadium: the old Bökelberg. The structure of the north, south and west stand have been preserved, and where once the goal on the south side was now waves a club flag proudly in the wind. The centre spot - where Allen Simonsen was handed over his Ballon d'Or in 1977 is tucked away under a big white villa.
The club might have left the area for quite a while now, its roots lay in district Eicken and that won't be forgotten. On walking distance of the Bökelberg is the heart of the area, the Eickener Straße, where the memories to the glorious seventies are kept alive. On the crossing with the Schwogenstraße stands a statue in honor of Herbert Wimmer, Berti Vogts and Günter Netzer, three legendary players of that era. On the corner with the Thüringer Straße lies the 'Borussia Ball', a ball of ten tons and 1.80m diameter, with all the trophies won by the club engraved on the pedestal.
In the seventies, die Fohlen won trophy after trophy: five league titles, a DFB-Pokal and two UEFA Cups were won by Gladbach. Traditionally there's a driving tour with a bus through the city, with tens of thousands of fans along te route. Endpoint of the march is always the balcony of the police station on the corner of the Alter Markt and the Rathausstraße. The last time the Alter Markt flooded with people we have to go back to 2008, when Gladbach promoted to the Bundesliga.
Also without a title you should go to the Alter Markt, with on nr. 12 Brauhaus Manamana. The frontage, with a giant mural of Günter Netzer with the DFB-Pokal says it all: this is a real Borussia pub, although you can find some away fans on match days as well. Go inside and enjoy the excess of scarfs, shirts and mugs of self-brewed beer.
The already mentioned Günter Netzer is, together with Jupp Heynckes, the most famous football son of Mönchengladbach. When you take the Waldhausener Straße at Manamana you come at one of the nightlife streets of the city, where Netzer in 1971 - then just 26 years old - opened night club Lovers Lane, on nr. 55. In the years that the flamboyant number ten ran the club, you could bump into lots of celebrities every Saturday night, from singer Udo Jürgens to Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer and even - when Netzer had moved to Spain - the whole squad of Real Madrid.
Is the city too far for you? Not far from the Borussia-Park is the Fanhaus located, at Gladbacher Straße 511. It's a typical German fan bar, with long tables outside, a window for 'Currywurst mit Pommes' and German heavy metal.
Tickets for Borussia Mönchengladbach can you buy easily on the official website of the club.
On the A61, take the exit of the Borussia-Park and follow the signs. If we may advise you: leave your car at P7, the car park the closest to the motorway. It's a little bit further to walk to the stadium, but after the match it can save you hours of waiting.
By public transport, you can take a shuttle bus on the train station of Mönchengladbach. And with your match ticket, the buses are even for free.
Images: Shutterstock, SANTOS, BSR Agency
