Marius Wolf: “I’ve finally arrived”

He still has his first-ever shirt. “It’s somewhere in my parents’ house,” said Wolf. Classic yellow with a black collar and long black stripes on the sleeves. It is the shirt that Borussia Dortmund’s 1996 title-winning team wore. It is also the jersey that secured BVB Marius Wolf’s everlasting love, even if this went a little under the radar at the time.

It was his cousin who gave him the shirt. It didn’t fit him anymore, but on little Marius it came all the way down to his knees. “It was more of a nightie,” he explained, and it made him into a fan overnight. Oh, black and yellow Borussia, how beautiful you are! From that point onwards, he was always nagging his father to take him to this legendary Dortmund, "even though I had no idea where it might be". So Papa Wolf put his eight-year-old son in the car and drove him to the most beautiful stadium in the world to watch a Bundesliga match against Bayer Leverkusen. 430 kilometres each way from the Wolfs' house in Einberg, Upper Franconia. When Marius put pen to paper on a contract with BVB 15 years later, his mother sent him a photo of the black and yellow nightgown and wrote underneath: "The dream has come true!”

The story of that first shirt can be found in Ronald Reng’s excellent book “Der große Traum” (The Big Dream), for which he accompanied three boys absolutely desperate to make it in the Bundesliga over a nine-year period. Marius, how does it feel to be the protagonist of a book? 

It's something quite exciting. First of all, I have to say that Ronald has written it very well. There have been times where I’ve thought: what a pity there wasn't a book like this when I was young. We did have some important things conveyed to us, such as how to approach school, daily training sessions and the everyday problems you have to deal with if you want to become a professional. But this is a completely different book with a totally new approach! I can only recommend it to all young footballers, and to their parents too. And ultimately: I’ve now finally arrived!

The Wolf has found his patch?!

Right! The Wolf has been around the block, he has had a long and interesting journey; that’s something I’ve been reminded of again while reading the book. In my younger years, I became something of a relocation expert. Nuremberg, Munich, Hanover, Dortmund – with spells in Berlin and Cologne in between. Ask my father and my cousin...

The one who gave you your first BVB shirt?
Exactly! He was there with my dad when I moved. We all looked for the Wolf's patch together and now we've finally found it. I'm finally where I belong!

There is also a happy ending for you in the book. You are the only one of the three boys who made it to the top. But it didn't always look like it. You had to deal with setbacks. As a youngster at 1. FC Nuremberg, later as a young professional at 1860 Munich, during your first Bundesliga stint at Hannover, and also at BVB. It's the same for many people, but the great thing about you is that you always got back up again! You don't let yourself give up until you're finally where you want to be! Is that a trait of yours that extends beyond football?

Absolutely. There are always times when things don't go so well, in everyday life as well as in football. That's just part and parcel of it, also and especially in my case. But now I'm here, and that's what counts!

Was there a point where you ever thought: I can't keep going? I'm just not good enough as a professional footballer and have to do something else?

I wouldn't quite go that far. But five years ago at Hannover, when I really wanted to make the leap to the Bundesliga and was dropped to the second team, I did doubt myself a little. I was far away from home, then I got injured and then I came down with Pfeiffer's glandular fever. In sporting terms, I was completely out of it. I was very lucky that I always felt the support of my family and friends during this time.

That’s still the case for you today. No matter what happens, you know you’ll get through it. You also grow from your crises.
How do you define crises? I've only ever seen challenges, and you have to embrace them. That's why I play for BVB now! For example, I had a problem in Nuremberg at the beginning of my career, with growth and so on, I grew 20 centimetres in two years. When that happens, you lose some things and regain them later, but you don't know that at the time. It took me three quarters of a year, then everything was back to normal. At that time, I was lucky that my former coach from 1. FC Nuremberg U15s took over as head of the youth development at 1860 Munich. He still had me on his radar.

Things took off for you at 1860. You became a regular in the U19 Bundesliga and then moved up via the U23s to the first team, which was playing in the Bundesliga 2. But there was trouble there too. You didn't immediately accept a contract extension and were therefore suspended for an away game in Bochum.

That was a drastic experience. It was my first experience of how things can be in the professional business. I didn't understand it and also didn't believe that something like that was possible. I had just received my first call-up to the U21 national team, so you don't expect the club to take a measure like that.

I didn't care. I just went to the national team as a suspended player and had the best-possible way to distract myself from the stress in Munich.

Next came the culture shock with Hannover 96, where you were far away from family and friends for the first time.
I saw this transfer as an opportunity. I wanted to play in the Bundesliga; Hannover gave me the opportunity. The fact that I sustained the injury, came down with glandular fever and was dropped to the second team... it doesn’t matter! I wouldn't have wanted to miss that time, because I didn't let myself down and believed in my opportunity. I knew I could make it in the Bundesliga. If not at Hannover, then somewhere else.

What happened next is one of the craziest stories in the Bundesliga – which is not short of crazy stories.
You mean the transfer to Frankfurt, even though I’d actually agreed to join Bochum? 

Back in January 2017, you’d already checked into a Bochum hotel on the penultimate day of the winter transfer window. The phone rang at half past ten in the evening. On the line was Bruno Hübner, the sporting director of Eintracht Frankfurt, who really wanted to sign you. A 22-year-old who had not asserted himself at relegated Hannover and had recently only played in the Regionalliga...

Yes, sometimes strange things happen. I had fully committed to Bochum and really wanted to get minutes under my belt there. Everything changed when Bruno Hübner called me. His sons knew me and probably put in a good word about me to him. How could I pass up the opportunity? I had the chance to play in the Bundesliga again; that was my dream! I did not need to think about it. So I checked out of the hotel, turned Bochum down and went straight to Frankfurt.

It was two months before you made your first Bundesliga appearance for Eintracht and another four months until your first Bundesliga goal, which you scored against BVB of all teams. You can find anything on YouTube, even a goal you scored for the 1860 U23s against Würzburg. But that goal against BVB is simply impossible to find.

Well, I'd be happy to help you out! It was a very rough game. Dortmund were 2-0 up, but we quickly got back into it and realised there was still something in it for us! We went for it, Mijat Gacinovic put the ball through, and I thought to myself: take it on and slot it in! So I took it on and slotted it in.

Incidentally, it was also Jadon Sancho's first game for BVB.
Really? I didn't know that. So it was a double debut, so to speak. I’ve learned something new.

Even during your great spell in Frankfurt, you went through a minor psychological crisis. In the DFB-Pokal semi-final against Borussia Mönchengladbach, you injured your shoulder so badly that you had to pull out of the final against BVB.

That was really tough. Eintracht don’t often reach a cup final and nor do I. Believe me, I pestered the doctors for a long time and asked them over and over whether something could be done, whether the operation could perhaps be postponed. No chance! The injury was very serious; the shoulder had to be operated on immediately. There is nothing worse for a footballer than to stand by while his team-mates are on the pitch, especially in a game of that magnitude...

...which ended in a 2-1 defeat to BVB. But it happened again the very next year, and what a game it was! 3-1 against the heavy favourites Bayern Munich in the final!

An incredible experience, for several reasons. It was not only a sensational game as you say and my greatest sporting success to date. It was also my last game for Eintracht before moving to Dortmund. There couldn't have been a better farewell than that cup victory!

In Frankfurt, you met a lifelong friend in Kevin Prince Boateng. Did you also talk about BVB before your transfer? He played here briefly a few years ago.

Of course. He was one of the first people I told about my transfer. Afterwards, we went on holiday together to Ibiza, and it came up often. Kevin said: "Very good decision, brother, you absolutely have to do it, Dortmund are a super club!”

The first year at BVB went quite well, but in the second year you quickly departed for Berlin.
Of course, I’d envisaged it quite differently. I think the pre-season in the summer of 2019 was the best I've ever had. That's why I waited so long before making the switch – right up until the last day – because there were no signs from the club that they wanted to let me go. But at some point, I had to acknowledge that it would be difficult for me that season. No problem. Then I'll just have to work somewhere else so that I can help Dortmund out in the near future. That's why I made the last-minute switch to Berlin.

Former BVB coach Lucien Favre had already converted Lukasz Piszczek from a striker to a defender, and he also felt you were suited to playing further back. That makes you an even more versatile player. Does that memory remain as a positive one from a not so positive time?

True, I definitely benefited from that. I’d already played as a defender in Frankfurt from time to time, but in a five-man backline, which is quite different from the back four at present. Of course, I developed as a footballer, so that sense that time was a plus. I have only positive things to take away from that Dortmund spell as well!

There was also a crisis in Berlin, but one that didn't affect only you. Hertha were in danger of submerging into chaos when Jürgen Klinsmann left Berlin all of a sudden, leaving behind a rather strange legacy. You were one of the few who were looked at favourably in his assessment. In his diary published via "Sportbild", it says: "Marius Wolf, 24, player on loan from Dortmund, super attitude, he should be bought and value generated."

Well, what can I say? The Bundesliga has never witnessed anything like it. As players, we didn't pay much attention to it. Even though, in retrospect, I have to say that it makes you happy to be assessed so positively, even if it is in a very unusual context. It didn't do me much good as a player anyway, because a new coach came in straightaway and of course he had his own means of evaluation.

After the year at Hertha, you returned to BVB and started from scratch. Once again, you gave everything and went for it, but at the end of pre-season, you were loaned out again – this time to Cologne. Did that not make you feel like you were being shunted back and forth?

I never saw it like that. That's just the way this business is. I wanted to play football, and because that would have been difficult at BVB that season, I had to go somewhere else. I tried to see this situation in a positive light. I’ve taken a lot from my many transfers and loan spells, got to know great cities and interesting people. No one will ever take that away from me. And: I have always played for clubs with great fans!

Cologne's year almost ended with another low. You only escaped relegation in the second leg of the promotion/relegation play-off against Holstein Kiel.

Oh, I was pretty sure that we were going to make it. On the one hand, because we had a good team; and on the other, because I knew the situation. I had already played for 1860 against Kiel in the promotion/relegation play-off and, after a rather poor first leg, we still managed to stay in the league thanks to the second leg. That was a strange occurrence.

This summer saw you return to Dortmund for the third time, but this time in a different environment. There was a new coaching team and thus a new opportunity for you.

That was a major motivating factor! The new coach didn't know me and everything was set back to zero. And before you ask whether I feared another crisis because of that stupid ankle injury in pre-season: no, I didn't think about that at all. First of all, injuries never happen at a good time. And I realised early on that I would be back very quickly. Again, it's incredibly important to think positively. That's partly why I was back on the pitch within two weeks.

Sounds like something your buddy Kevin-Prince Boateng might have said. How close is your contact these days amid the intense business of the Bundesliga?

We still talk on the phone every week and play Playstation against each other from time to time.

Who wins?

I win. It's also a generational thing, and, sorry Kevin: your generation aren’t great at Playstation!

Author: Sven Goldmann