The queue for the bar started to snake around Signal Iduna Park from not long after 6am. Stalls sold scarves and T-shirts plastered with the legend “Deutscher Meister 2023”. The club had emailed fans to detail the timings and route of Sunday’s victory parade; after the players had signed the Golden Book of the City of Dortmund, their bus would leave Westfalenhütte and make the journey towards Borsigplatz, where the club was founded in 1909.
This time, it had to be for Borussia Dortmund. Thoughts of tempting fate and angering the football gods were put to one side in the interests of practicality. Sebastian Kehl – a man who knows what it takes to beat Bayern Munich to a Bundesliga title – and Edin Terzic spoke boldly in the run-up to the game, with the latter talking of the team, the fans and the city taking “a final step” in unison. After having had their best season of home form, facing a Mainz team with nothing to play for on a run of four straight defeats, it had to be.
