Who and what in the World is a Moclenbaklen?

A valid question asked in a comment on the Soccer By Ives blog, after Michael Bradley’s move from SC Heerenveen to Borussia Mönchengladbach had been confirmed.

For one, Mönchengladbach as a city is not big or important enough to inspire foreigners to give it an easier to spell and pronounce name. Mönchengladbach as a name is also too long for an average German to care to pronounce either, which is why it’s often referred to as just Gladbach. Gladbach also happens to be the city’s original name. Yet, there is another Gladbach, now called Bergisch Gladbach, not too far away from the Gladbach I’m currently trying to blog about. Both are situated in North Rhine-Westphalia in the west of Germany. Anyway, the decision was made that Gladbach needed a new name to distinguish it from the other Gladbach. So back in 1888 Gladbach was renamed to München Gladbach. It took more than half a century for someone to realize, that there was another München in Germany, down in the deep south of Bavaria. A big and important München at that, which even had a dedicated English name. Thus, in another disambiguation effort, the city was once again renamed by swapping the ü for an ö. Mönchen Gladbach was born in 1950 and in 1960 it was agreed that Mönchengladbach should be the official spelling of the city’s name from now on. If it wasn’t for Borussia Mönchengladbach, this bit of trivia would be all there is to say about this city.

If it wasn’t for Borussia Mönchengladbach an illustrious chapter of German football mythology would have been written by some other club and almost certainly would have been much less about immaculately styled hair and young horses.

Borussia Mönchengladbach won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965 - alongside Bayern Munich. The two clubs would end up dominating the Bundesliga in the seventies, sharing nine consecutive Bundesliga titles among them; five for Gladbach and four for Bayern. The two clubs would also end up supplying the German national team with the majority of its personnel - later dubbed Germany’s golden generation. Bayern had Franz Beckenbauer. Gladbach had Günter Netzer. While Beckenbauer elevated his status to Kaiser, Netzer elevated his status to popstar - the first football popstar in Germany. He ditched a girl-next-door housewife for an abstract artist model girlfriend, opened a night club called Lovers Lane in his free time, came to work in his new Ferrari and paid close attention to his unique hair style.

Gladbach’s success was built upon their coach’s ability to spot and develop promising young talents. A trademark of the team which earned them their nickname Die Fohlen (The Foals), which is still in use today. It was basically a necessity, since München Gladbach was more Gladbach than München, and thus the club lacked the infrastructure to generate the funds necessary to keep or even buy the best players. Bayern Munich benefitted from the Olympic Summer Games in 1972 and could rent the brand new Olympiastadion. Borussia Mönchengladbach were tied to the small Bökelberg stadium.

Eventually Gladbach’s poor economic perpective caught up with them. The club managed to win the DFB-Pokal in 1995, but otherwise enjoyed topsy-turvy mid-table successes in the Bundesliga. Gladbach produced some fine footballers like Lothar Matthäus or Stefan Effenberg, who were then both bought by former arch rival Bayern Munich. Following a sustained wallflower existence, Gladbach were relegated in 1999 and again in 2007.

So, to come back to the question of “who and what in the world is a moclenbaklen”? It’s a club with a big history and a big fanbase. It’s also just a newly promoted club, with the short term goal to establish itself in the Bundesliga again. But the chances aren’t all that bad. The club has tackled its’ infrastructure problem and invested around €120m into the new Borussia Park, made up of the club’s headquarter, training facilities and a new stadium for 54000 fans - which can be expanded to 60000, in case there is enough demand. Christian Ziege was installed as sporting director following the club’s relegation in 2007, and Ziege turned out to be more than up to the task. He completely overhauled the old squad and built a team, which dominated the second division and has a good chance to stay in the league this season. With players like Marin, potentially Baumjohann and now Bradley in midfield, there’s even something to get excited about, which is rare for a newly promoted team.

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