Virkus: "Found a very good solution"

Borussia's sporting director Roland Virkus talks in interview about goalkeeper Yann Sommer's move to Bayern Munich and the signing of 29-year-old Jonas Omlin as his successor.

Roland, it is clear from today that Yann Sommer is moving to FC Bayern. How is it that the transfer has finally got over the line?

Roland Virkus: I’d like to emphasise first of all that it was Yann’s express wish to join FC Bayern because it excited him from a sporting perspective. It was not our ambition to give him up, in fact the opposite: We absolutely wanted to extend his contract which was expiring in the summer. Only because of the fact that he is such a well-deserving player did we as a club consider allowing him this step. However, our first-choice goalkeeper moving was always tied to certain conditions, and it looked for a long time like these would not be met. But, as it goes sometimes in football, a lot of energy has come into the situation in the last few days. I would like to expressly emphasise here once again that Yann always behaved properly and fairly through this whole process. Finally, all the conditions were met, so the transfer happened.

One of these conditions was that Borussia were able to sign a replacement first. Jonas Omlin joins Borussia from HSC Montpellier.

Virkus: Through the signing of Jonas Omlin we have found a very good solution from our point of view. He is a very reliable goalkeeper with a good presence, strong on his line and also with the ball at his feet. For our style of play, we need a goalkeeper with a very specific profile. Jonas has all the qualities to do this.

Replacing a player like Yann Sommer, however, will definitely not be an easy task.

Virkus: Obviously Yann Sommer’s are big boots to fill. He has developed into an absolutely leading personality on and off the pitch in his eight and a half years here. He leaves as vice captain and the foreign Borussia player with the most appearances. But at one time he was following on from Marc-André ter Stegen. We absolutely trust that Jonas can develop in a similar way to Yann.

Will he be able to start on this task on Sunday against Leverkusen?

Virkus: The coaching team will make a decision on this question. In any case, we are very pleased with the squad that we have available for the second part of the season.

Ko Itakura made his return from injury during the World Cup, while Florian Neuhaus and Hannes Wolf are also available again. The squad is almost back to full strength; the only doubt is Marcus Thuram.

Virkus: We have to take it day by day with Marcus. We’re still hopeful that he’ll be available for Sunday. But aside from that, we’re obviously pleased to have the long-term injured players back again and we’re hoping that we avoid any bad injury luck from now on, because I’m convinced that it’s cost us a few points here or there. The head coach has everyone available again now. The more relaxed injury situation should give him more options and help us to deliver a more stable remainder of the season.

Exactly 70 days after the 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund, the season resumes for Borussia on Saturday at 17:30 CET with the home game against Bayer Leverkusen. How do you think preparations have gone?

Virkus: Such a long mid-season break is unusual, so we had to go about it differently to usual. The team being given a holiday at first and then beginning preparations for the remainder of the season in the middle of December turned out to be a good decision. A winter break is usually very short and compact, but this season the coaching staff and players had a lot of time to prepare for the final 19 games of the season.

Is the fact that there was no training camp this season is part of the different approach?

Virkus: That’s another decision that has proved to be a good one. I must admit that we got a bit lucky that we didn’t have a very extreme winter. But in that case, we could have gone to the south. However, we were able to train here at BORUSSIA-PARK, in our usual surroundings and with very good facilities. Another important factor of that was having our full staff with us. Our fitness coaches and physiotherapists were all together and we could gradually introduce our injured players back into training.

What are your plans for the second half of the season?      

Virkus: We would like to have a solid second half of the season. When you look at the table, we can still climb one or two places higher, but we also need to secure ourselves against the teams below us. Obviously, we would like to pick up more points away from home than we have up until now. But, we’re also clearly proud of our good record at home, which we would definitely like to maintain. For me, our performances at BORUSSIA-PARK, but also the excellent attendances, are further proof that the club have come closer together again after a difficult period. We want to keep working on that, it’s extremely important! And when I think about the fact that we will be greeted by a near sold-out house here on Sunday evening under the floodlights against Bayer Leverkusen, I feel pure positive anticipation. It’s great to finally get underway again!