You could not have a more emotional farewell. 80 677 fans – amongst them the fans from Werder Bremen! – gave Jürgen Klopp and Sebastian Kehl a standing ovation and non-stop applause when they went on their lap of honour around the Signal Iduna Park. And it was not just the heavens that opened their gates. Countless tears were shed on the last day of two great Borussia legends in “their” stadium.

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It was the day of the great emotions and the great gestures. It started with Mats Hummels passing on the captain’s armband to his predecessor Sebastian Kehl, the official team captain from 2008 to 2014 and the leader in so many games before that. And this is how Kehl lead his team onto the pitch one more time in his last Bundesliga game.

A quarter of an hour earlier the crowd had called his name at a volume never experienced before. Unlike Jürgen Klopp, who did not wish to have an official farewell, Kehl was praised and honoured by BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke. Watzke wrote in the stadium magazine Echt: “Dear Sebastian, the term team captain was only invented for people like you.” And he added: “you are a leader in the true sense of the word, you always stayed level headed, you have great social skills, sometimes you’re not so comfortable, but you always have integrity, you are straight, honest and have lots of ambition. In difficult times, when many a player took advantage to move on to the next best club, you always stayed loyal to BVB. You have always been one of us, a Borusse through and through.”

Then when stadium announcer Norbert Dickel spoke into the microphone: “thank you for 13 years of true love, thank you to our number five Sebastian…” you could hear the thunderous shouting from the stands: “Kehl!!!” The player who came from Freiburg in 2002 was literally naturalised by the Südtribüne (South Stand) and was sung about as a “lad from Dortmund”: “and we will always be Borussia, there is never, never, never any other club!”

Klopp and Kehl played the perfect one-two on this afternoon. In the 86th minute the Head Coach substituted his long term captain and thus made sure he got the appropriate standing ovation from the crowd when he was taken off. Sven Bender, who came on for him joined in the standing ovation.

However after the final whistle everyone in the stadium focused on the departing Head Coach. Watzke said: “Dear Jürgen, you have made incredible history here with us! None of your predecessors stayed as long as you did, no one got as many points, no one won the German Championship like you did with such a young team in 2011. You won two Championships with your coaching staff right from the off, you won the Double, and you reached the Champions League final as a total outsider. But above all you gave me and all of us our optimism back after one of the most difficult spells in the club’s history and you have won your place in the hearts of the people.”

The „Jürgen Klopp, Jürgen Klopp, Jürgen Klopp“- chants did not want to stop. The team and the crowd bowed to the departing Head Coach when he went on his lap of honour accompanied by the music of Trude Herr (“You never leave completely”). Even the Werder Bremen fans applauded non-stop and together with the Black Yellow fans they created a real moment of awe that has seldom or never before been experienced in football.

 

„Ideally we will see each other again next Sunday in the town centre”

Klopp did not want to make an announcement there and then, “because you learn from your mistakes”, as he explained via a video message: “I won’t do it again live, because no one could understand what I was trying to say back then in Mainz because of my tearful voice…”

Today everyone understood him. The fans were hanging on every word he said when the video was played over the screens. “I will take a full bag of memories with me.” And Klopp stated: ideally we will see each other again next Sunday in the town centre. “To bring everything here to a close with a great victory would really fit the occasion.” Looking at his successor, he recommended “not to make comparisons.” And: “the club has a great future ahead.”

At the end the players formed a guard of honour. Jürgen Klopp walked through it – and seemed so happy about it that he walked through it again, before he disappeared from the screen and made way for Sebastian Kehl, who was still on a lap of honour with his children Luis (8) and Leno (5). The team mates waited patiently until the trio walked through the guard of honour. But this was not the end for Kehl and his children. The last thanks went to the Südtribüne (South Stand), who said good-bye to one of the greatest Borussia legends or all time in style. And then the day came to an end, just as it had begun. A real feeling to make your skin tingle. With an impressive Jürgen Klopp choreography. Boris Rupert