Final call: Owen Hargreaves on the 2001 Champions League triumph

May 2001 was a special month: the Bundesliga showdown in Hamburg, the Champions League final in Milan – and right in the thick of it all, a young man from Canada made his breakthrough. A reunion with Owen Hargreaves.

Whenever Owen Hargreaves feels a longing for Munich, he simply gets in his car. He lives just north of London, but after a 45-minute drive he’s in Marylebone, a district in the heart of the city. He knows his way around here. “You absolutely must try the spaghetti over there, and the sandwiches over there,” he says as he strolls through the narrow streets. People are sitting outside cafés and restaurants, and the evening crowds are slowly starting to gather in the pubs. Marylebone is like a small village in the middle of the big city; life here is more laid-back, he says: “Marylebone always reminds me of Munich.”

Almost 20 years after leaving the club, Hargreaves is still very much a Munich man. Ten years at FC Bayern clearly left their mark. He's now sitting with a pot of tea, speaking fluently in German about his work. As a TV pundit for the British sports channel TNT, he's in great demand when it comes to explaining what FC Bayern are about. He says he's often asked, for example, what it feels like to be doused in wheat beer. Hargreaves enjoys talking about the traditions and stories that define FC Bayern. When he wore the red shirt, around the turn of the millennium, tragedies and triumphs were very much intertwined. He's taken the motto ‘Keep going, just keep going’ to heart. A few years ago, he produced a television documentary about his former club. Vincent Kompany, once his teammate at Manchester City, watched it, he reports: "And he told me he really liked it." So Hargreaves ended up explaining FC Bayern to Kompany.

Battling his brothers for the ball

About 30 years ago, however, it was Hargreaves himself who had no idea what FC Bayern was about. He was 15 and had travelled from Calgary to Munich, 8,000 kilometres away, for a trial. “I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know the culture, knew nothing about FC Bayern,” he says, smiling at the memory. He had grown up in Canada, “in a footballing family”, he says. His father, an Englishman, had been a pretty good footballer. And he passed that talent on to his three sons. Owen was the youngest, the smallest – and the battles for the ball with his brothers shaped him. From an early age, he learned not to back down, to stand his ground. Qualities that would serve him well later on.

Throughout Hargreaves’ career, there have been numerous occasions when he stood up to those supposedly stronger than him – and came out on top. It all began during his trial in Munich. A German coach in Canada had steered him towards Säbener Straße via a friend who was a Bayern youth coach. He arrived in October 1996 and was a little overawed. He, the little Canadian, was to train alongside a host of German U17 internationals. “But as soon as I got the ball, I knew: I don’t need to hide.” The following summer, Hargreaves moved into what was then the youth hostel at the training facility.

In Munich, he took a “completely natural path”, he says. U17s, U18s, the reserves – and before long he was allowed to train with the first team. Giovanni Trapattoni was the coach at the time. “I thought it was far too early for me,” he says. But once again he realised: I can do this. He particularly remembers a tussle with Alexander Zickler. “Zico was always the fastest. But then we had a sprint – and I kept up with him. Zico said to me, surprised: ‘What’s the matter with you?,’” recounts Hargreaves. But simply letting the professional player pass him out of respect was out of the question for him. “I was used to going into tackles. That was my strength, after all.” After that, he regularly trained with the first team, and from the summer of 2000 onwards he became a permanent member of the first-team squad. By then, Ottmar Hitzfeld was the coach. Hargreaves has never forgotten a conversation he had with him at the start of the 2000/01 season. After a training session, he was just collecting the balls when Hitzfeld approached him. “He said: "Owen, the lads are a bit annoyed with you. That’s good. But keep collecting the balls, keep showing respect. Then you’ll make it." The conversation lasted 30 seconds – it was the best advice I ever received from a coach.”

Hargreaves made his professional debut In August 2000, coming on for a few brief appearances. But he mainly played for the reserves in the third-tier Regionalliga Süd. He had to be patient. In April 2001, Stefan Effenberg picked up a red card and was suspended in the Bundesliga, and Jens Jeremies had to undergo knee surgery. So Hitzfeld put Hargreaves in his starting XI for the league match at Frankfurt. “I played against Horst Heldt – and I shut him down. From that moment on, the team saw me differently,” he says. Suddenly, Hargreaves was more than just part of the squad. He was part of the team.

The god from Madrid

Then came 9 May and the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid. Bayern had won the first leg 1-0; in the return leg, Effenberg was suspended after picking up several yellow cards and Hargreaves started again. To this day, he hasn’t forgotten standing in the tunnel at the Olympiastadion ahead of kick-off: “My jersey was far too big for me - and Luís Figo was next to me - all in white, every strand of hair perfectly in place. I looked at him and thought: "Wow, he looks like a god." Figo was FIFA World Player of the Year at the time, but on the pitch, Hargreaves put his respect to one side. “On about the five or ten minute mark, he played the ball close to me - and I thought to myself: ‘No, not going to happen!’ I snatched the ball and sprinted past him. I still remember how he looked at me. In that moment, I knew: I can really hold my own. That moment gave me such a boost.” The match against Figo and all the ‘Galácticos’ of Real Madrid was Hargreaves’ definitive breakthrough. Bayern won 2-1 and progressed to the final! “Karl-Heinz Rummenigge came up to me in the dressing room and said: ‘We’ll sign a new contract tomorrow,’” he recounts. “After that match, I enjoyed a different status."

“Effe said: ‘Get out of the way!’”

Hargreaves then had a remarkable few weeks. Shortly after Madrid came the nail-biting title decider in Hamburg. After going 1–0 down in the 90th minute, the title seemed to have slipped away, but then, in stoppage time, there was an indirect free-kick in the HSV penalty area. “I'd liked to have taken it and I asked Effenberg too,” says Hargreaves, “but Effe just said: ‘Get out of the way!’” Patrik Andersson was to take the shot. “When Patrik put the ball in the back of the net – that feeling was incredible. A moment like that, a match like that, my first championship… You feel invincible. That’s how we were feeling as we headed to Milan.”

23 May 2001, the Champions League final against Valencia. Bayern had been chasing this title for 25 years. In 1999,  against Manchester United, they'd already had their hands on the trophy – and yet still lost. Back then in Barcelona, Hargreaves had been sitting in the stands with the U18s, cheering the team on. “I screamed so much that I lost my voice.” Just two years later, he himself took to the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium for the final. “I was holding the hand of a little boy who was really nervous,” he says. “I told him: ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m a bit nervous too – but let’s enjoy this.’ And then I read the banner in the stands: ‘Today is a good day to make history.’ So I said to myself: ‘That’s exactly what we’re going to do.’”

It was a nerve-wracking match. Bayern conceded a penalty and were 1–0 down after just three minutes. Shortly afterwards, they were awarded a penalty of their own, but Mehmet Scholl was denied by goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares. “Valencia had a superb team,” says Hargreaves, listing the names: “Mendieta, Baraja, Ayala, Carew …” His job was to mark playmaker Aimar. “He was taken off at half-time,” he says with a grin. With determination, grit and team spirit, Bayern worked their way back into the game. And they had Stefan Effenberg. “Effe was a giant,” says Hargreaves, recounting a match at Manchester United where things got heated. “Effe just put his foot on the ball. He was incredible. You trusted him completely.”

In Milan, Effenberg brought Bayern back into the game. Early in the second half, he converted the next penalty to make it 1-1. It stayed that way till the 120th minute. In the penalty shoot-out, Bayern then fell behind again. The first taker, Paulo Sérgio, blasted his shot over the bar. Patrik Andersson also missed later on. But Bayern had one Oliver Kahn, who became the ‘Titan’ that night. He'd already saved two penalties when Mauricio Pellegrino stepped up. “I would have been next,” says Hargreaves. But Kahn saved it – and the whole place erupted. “I’ll never forget that moment,” he says. “I came from Canada. At 12 I was delivering newspapers, at 14 I was working at McDonald’s. And then you’re part of the best team in Europe. The whole world was watching. I couldn’t believe it.”

In Marylebone, Hargreaves has long since finished his tea. He's spent an hour talking about his early days at Bayern Munich. From Canada to Munich and on to Milan. “I was so proud to play for that team. We had so much heart,” he adds before saying goodbye. He’s short on time. In two days’ time it’s the Champions League, then the Premier League again at the weekend, and he has interview commitments in between. As a TV pundit, Hargreaves is just as busy as he used to be on the pitch. But sometimes, when he has time and Marylebone can no longer satisfy his longing for Bavaria, he comes to Munich. He still has a flat here.

In this interview, Michael Henke, former assistant coach at FC Bayern, talks about how Ottmar Hitzfeld moulded a team from top players and how FC Bayern won the Champions League in 2001: