From The Archive: A 2018 Interview With Manfred “Manni” Burgsmüller

An interview with the late Manfred “Manni” Burgsmüller conducted by Ben McFadyean in 2018.

Hey Manni, it’s a really special thing for me to talk to you — the newest honorary member of the London BVB fan club. You join a special group of players we are honoured to have as members including Neven Subotic, Jörg Heinrich, Martin Kree, Günther Kutowski and Marcel Raducanu. Firstly, thank you for joining our fan club, and accepting our gift of lifelong membership.

“It’s special also for me as you are the first BVB fan club to invite me to become an honorary member. Also, London is a special place and I think it is really cool that English fans come all the way over to Dortmund to watch their football. I am happy to accept the membership.”

Many know you as the greatest BVB goalscorer of all time looking through the records but most have not seen you play. How does it feel to be at the top of the list still after all these years, just ahead of record player by appearances, and now sporting director, Michael Zorc.

“Yeah, and that is one record ‘Susi’ (Zorc) will never break! Of course, I am proud of my time at BVB and the goals scored it feels like a long time ago now – it is over thirty years.

“I remember Zorc when he first arrived, he was always ambitious, in fact, I am certain it was me who gave him the nickname ‘Susi” he had even longer hair than me, long brown hair, or was it Rolli (Rolf Rüssmann BVB defender 84-88)?

“Zorc came from a local team in Dortmund Tus Eving Lindenhorst, he was barely 18 years old when he joined you could see he would succeed he worked really hard – he was going to be somebody and he really did.”

I would like to ask, I remember this song well from my first season — ‘Manni Manni Manni Burgsmuller’ — Can you tell us about the background to the song? What did the chant mean to you? Was it a special tribute from the South stand?

“I don’t remember how it came about as a fan chant, it was an Abba song at the time, they were a massive pop group, it was a special BVB anthem, especially the first times but you know as a player you hear your name it makes you feel special, then it’s total concentration.

“I always remember arriving in the team bus and we would drive down the side of the stadium to our changing room before the game, from the bus you could see the South stand was already packed to the rafters even 2 hours before the match they would be singing and celebrating, incredible, unrivalled.”

“Otto Rehagel is a special memory for me. You will remember that it was Rehagel who brought me to Dortmund where he was the coach.

“I later also worked with him at Werder. With Otto everything was like clockwork. Rehagel was an inspirational leader, I was lucky to play under him at both Dortmund and Werder.

“In respect of Eike Immel he was an exceptional keeper, when he joined he was just 18, a nice lad but inexperienced, the Stuttgart thing somehow worked for him, he won the title in ’91, but he left a void at Dortmund of course.”

A young player you are rumoured to have mentored at Werder late joined BVB?

“I was given a special task by Rehagel to look after a youngster who had joined the club and I was asked to ‘take him under my wing’, Karl-Heinz Riedle. I looked after him helped him to get his first apartment and showed him the ropes at Werder, a special talent, there are some great stories but I think Kalle would rather I don’t share those.”

Have you ever been to a Premier League match? Do you have a favourite English team?

“I worked for some years for Reebok the kit manufacturer and actually caught up many years later with Kalle Riedle when he was at Anfield. Liverpool were a Reebok team at the time. It was my only game on ‘Der Insel’ (The Island’) but English football is special also. I am a fan of Liverpool, of course, because of Kloppo.”

Players didn’t go overseas in those days as much as they do now. I remember Paul Breitner and Uli Stielike who both played for Real Madrid. Stielike transferred from ‘Gladbach, and Breitner, who was a superstar in those days at Bayern. Did you ever get an offer from overseas?

“I had the chance when I was at RW Essen, I negotiated with RSC Anderlecht and was close to a transfer they were the UEFA Cup champions at the time and were heavily sponsored by a big brewery, it would have been a big move, instead I joined Dortmund and the rest is history.”

You were part of the TV series Heiden der Kreisklasse as a coach, I have read about it, tell me more…

“I was part of a TV series for the German channel: Kabel 1. I had not managed before, but I took over coaching a local Dortmund team SSV Hacheney for one season in 2004/5 and 2005/6. The aim was to keep them from being relegated to the 8th tier the Kreisliga. We were relegated but through work and commitment we managed to bounce straight back.

“The promotion was a curse, however, as the club were unable to find sponsors and the club folded in 2007. We had an amazing time though.

“I had never done anything like that before, during the series we had guest appearances in the team by legends like Uli Stein, Gerald Asamoah, Roman Weidenfeller, Michael Lusch, Michael Schulz, Wolfgang de Beer, Steffen Freund and Willi ‘Ente’ Lippens. They all joined Hacheney. It made great TV viewing, but for the club when they went bust it was a bit of a waste of time.”

Which shirts do you still have from your career? The UHU shirt was amazing.

“Looking back some of the shorts especially they were so tight, it is funny seeing some games. I also like the classic shirts. You may be amazed but I don’t have one single shirt from then. I gave them all away over the years. Actually, I would love to find one from that BVB era.”

What about Germany? You were called up for Germany and played three matches. Your debut was against Switzerland in Stuttgart, what do you remember about it? I am sure you have kept that shirt.

“No, in those days there just weren’t that many shirts to keep we handed them in and I don’t know what happened to those shirts.

“The call-up for the national team, especially in my time was and is something very special. That chance to play for your country, I played only three matches for the national team.

“Helmut Schön the coach was a tactician and he was looking for a classic number nine which I never was. I was more of an offensive midfielder. I didn’t see enough of ‘Die Mannschaft’ because of players like Klaus Fischer, remember him?”

The striker for the national team and local rivals from the blue team from Gelsenkirchen? 45 caps for Germany I know of him, a great striker.

“The same, it was my debut in the national team and I smashed a bicycle kick goal which was not given by the referee but amazingly Fisher scored with an identical bicycle kick goal in the same match. It was a trademark type of goal for him. I have no regrets but you know the national team was dominated by Bayern then.”

Who was your most difficult opponent of the defenders at the time?

“Do you remember Norbert Eder the Bayern defender? By far my worst opponent. Norbert was really grim. I later actually played with him at 1 FC Nuremberg and we are still friends to this day but he was a horrible opponent. He always knew exactly what my play would be even before I played it. It’s like that with some in football there is a kind of intuitive player. Eder was like that. It was intuitive. And grim.”

What does Revierderby mean when you are a BVB player? Is it really different to other big matches?

“Revierderby… it’s like a cup final every time, maybe bigger. It’s the whole atmosphere around it. Everyone in the area is interested in this classic match for weeks before and after. There is nothing else people in Dortmund talk about.

“If you win it is celebrated like a trophy. Don’t even mention scoring in it. Scoring in front of the South Stand is a mega lift, scoring in the derby is on another level.”

“The players say ‘Herne-West’ the word beginning with S is not used. I will tell you a funny story about Herne-West. For many years now I meet with my buddies at the end of the week at a gym for sauna and we have some beers.

“One week, a new friend comes to the sauna and as is customary he buys a round. So the guy, I forget his name, turns up with a crate of beer which is not a bad start, except that when we get into the light we see that he brought a brand called Veltins, the beer drunk at Schalke — not a good start to the friendship.

“That guy never brought beer again. Now we drink the Essen beer Stauderbier maybe you know it? Nothing from Herne-West comes into my place not even 30 years later…”

On 13 February 2022 with a brace against 1. FC Köln Marco Reus, with 160 goals scored, became Borussia Dortmund’s all-time leading scorer of the Bundesliga era.

Since season 1982/83 the club’s goal-scoring record in the league has been held by an Essen-born Centre-forward with 135 strikes; Manfred Burgsmüller.

Forty years ago, in season 1984/85, the former Germany international, with 29 goals, also became the top scorer of the 2. Bundesliga with 29 goals for Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. 

Five years ago, at just sixty-nine, the Bundesliga lost one of it’s greatest personalities, a much mourned loss; the striker known to fans simply as “Manni’. 

Born on the 22 December 1949, Burgsmüller played as a striker and occasionally operated as a midfielder. He appeared in 447 Bundesliga games over the course of 17 seasons, mainly for Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen, scoring a phenomenal 213 goals. Manni remains the fifth-best striker in Bundesliga history. 

Burgsmüller played in two distinct spells for local Rot-Weiss Essen and Bayer Uerdingen alike. In his initial stretch with the latter, in the second tier, he scored 29 goals in two separate seasons, followed by 22. Burgsmüller left Uerdingen for Borussia Dortmund In October 1976. At BVB, he played solely as a midfielder, and had the most painful years of his profession there, failing to net 15 goals in the first season. In the 1980– 81 campaign, he scored a career-best – in division one – 27 goals, helping the North Rhine-Westphalia-based side compete the season in seventh position. He finished second in the goalscorer list, only two behind Karl-Heinz Rummenigge of Bayern Munich.

The popular striker, who was known for his creativity and mischief in front of the goal, started the next season in great scoring fashion, netting seven times in only 15 matches. In November 1985, at nearly 36, he returned to the first division, signing for SV Werder Bremen where he would achieve success again: he scored in his first game, a 2–1 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach, adding two in his third, a 6–0 home routing of VfB Stuttgart, and totalling 13 in only 20 matches for the campaign, as Werder finished second; during his spell, the veteran appeared in 115 league games with a tally of 34 goals, and most-importantly the conquest of the 1988 league title, his only one.

Burgsmüller, who stood at 1.79m, retired at 41 having appeared three times for West Germany. His debut came on 16 November 1977, a 4–1 win over Switzerland. After retiring professionally, he played as a kicker in American football for German team Rhine Fire winning the World Bowl titles in 1998 and 2000.