Julian Brandt was born in the Hanseatic city of Bremen on 2 May 1996. The path he took was the same as every other boy: nursery, first sports club and the question: how much talent do you have – and who will discover it, who will foster it? We went in search of the people who discovered Julian's very special talents at a young age.
The longer Julian Brandt looked at the poster-sized photo of his former youth team, the more his eyes lit up. Exciting memories replayed like a film in his head; memories of his time as a straw-blond youngster at SC Borgfeld, of a carefree childhood– and the beginnings of his football career.
Julian pointed at Ruben. "He's huge nowadays," he said and cracked a smile. "He must be two metres and 50 centimetres tall." And then there was Malta, "with whom I always used to complain" he confessed. It's a journey back in time, a good-natured nostalgia trip that the Dortmund first-team player finds himself on, a re-telling of his own story, which began in the city of his birth: Bremen. More precisely: in the district of Borgfeld, where 9,300 inhabitants lead a life far removed from the glitz and glamour, in a rural idyll situated on the Wümme river in the north-east of the Hanseatic city. Everyone knows everyone here.
The local sports club, which was founded in 1981 and claims to have 850 active members across 36 teams under its name,states on its website that it teaches "football from the ground up".Julian Brandt joined the club at the age of five and stayed for eight years, until 2009– when Fred Wirth, his first coach, and Jens Ahlers, who later took over, recognised, fostered and shaped an exceptional talent.
But they did not get so carried away with their thoughts as to think they had a player on their hands who would go on to amass 47 international caps (three goals) and make 53 Champions League appearances (five goals). The statistics show that he has racked up more than 300 Bundesliga appearances, scoring one goal every give games on average. More than a million fans follow him on Instagram. A star who is recognised and popular. Appreciated for his creativity and enthusiasm for the game, an in-demand interview partner capable of making reflective and pointed statements.
It is tough to believe that the now 27-year-old professional footballer did not make the jump straight from the cradle to the football pitch. Football, to him, was only a case of love at second sight. "I wasn't really interested in it at first," revealed Julian, who preferred to sit in a dreamlike state on the edge of the field where the other boys were playing and pick daisies. Julian's football career was almost over before it had even picked up any momentum: his parents, who had signed him up for SC Borgfeld because "a bit of sport could be quite good" for him, even thought for a fleeting moment about withdrawing their rather unenthusiastic son from the club.
So when did he turn the corner and allow himself to be infected by his friends' enthusiasm for football? The answer can be traced back to Borgfeld. Home, school, nursery, sports field. Where it all began. "It's nice to reminisce," said Julian, reflecting upon a carefree time in which you don't think all that much about what is to come or what will happen. Because you're a child and you leave all your worries to the adults. "We all want to be a child once again in our lifetime," he emphasised. "For one day at least."
Smashed garage doors and trouble with the neighbours
There was a large playing field in front of the terraced house where the Brandt family lived. It was the meeting point for the children in the neighbourhood, many of them his age. They came together every day, with more and more of them joining. "We grabbed a ball and started kicking it around," said Julian. Trees marked out the goal. Balls flew into the street. The brakes of passing cars squealed. And when they weren't playing on this vast meadow, the kids from the football pitch would shoot against the garage doors nearby: "We got into a lot of trouble."
That partly came from neighbours who put a lot of passion and love into tending their flowerbeds and couldn't see the funny side when balls flew into their gardens and destroyed the plants they had grown with such dedication. "Our parents didn't have it easy," said Julian Brandt. "They then had to do the talking." But even when angry neighbours took out their anger by puncturing the ball with a knife, the Dortmund player remembers this phase of his life as being a carefree and honest time.
A raw diamond living in his own world
As the 'Weser Kurier' once reported, Fred Wirth owes his start in football to his son Matthias. The latter took his first steps as a young player at SC Borgfeld and,with the team lacking a coach and support staff, father Fred helped out. Since then, he has taught many boys the basics of football in his own way– patiently and reliably, without putting himself in the foreground. Fred Wirth is now 73 years old and, with his Rolling Stones cap, looks like the lead roadie of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood. In front of him is a relic from a bygone era: a youth jersey worn by Julian Brandt. "It is not possible to have more charisma," remembered Wirth with noticeable joy.
More than two decades ago, he began to polish SC Borgfeld's rough diamond. "He was quiet," recalled Wirth, adding: "I told him: you have to open your mouth, raise your hand and offer yourself." His protégé admitted that he was reserved at the time and "never really wanted to be in the foreground" because he felt uncomfortable. Nothing fundamental has changed in that regard to this day, said Brandt, who still characterises himself as "a bit of an introvert" and provoked surprise with a remarkable self-assessment: "I live in my own world."
Fred Wirth didn't even try to change five-year-old Julian's personality. But he did manage to awaken a passion for football in him and get it to grow: "It wasn't in him straightaway." He modestly noted that his only contribution to the creative player's impressive career was to have kindled the fire in Julian Brandt: "I only contributed to the fact that he didn't stop playing football after the first month. And that he stuck with it. The finer details were done by others." Fred Wirth succeeded in teaching the young boy to enjoy exercise, develop passion, show perseverance and boost his self-confidence. Who cared that moles occasionally left their mark on the SC Borgfeld pitch? The ball was now in motion and Julian Brandt was chasing it.
Fred Wirth was succeeded by Jens Ahlers, who formed a coaching team with Julian's father, Jürgen. "Jens," said Julian, "sometimes got into arguments with the opposing coach on the pitch. He was the one with the big mouth. And my dad was the mediator. The level-headed one." Jens Ahlers, who taught Julian the basics of football long before his 13 professional coaches in Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Dortmund, noticed that the whirlwind in his midfield was a creative player.
He was always demanding the ball, ready to make something special happen on the pitch. An all-round drifter who was better when not locked into a fixed position and forced into a rigid role in the centre or on the wings. Ahlers gave him a free rein. Cultivated a "big brother-little brother" relationship with him. Gave him as much freedom as possible and still let him take the fourth penalty after he had missed three. "I still love to assert myself mentally on the pitch," said Julian Brandt. "It's extremely good for me." His credo: ambition, enjoyment of the game, risk-taking and "doing amazing things".
Average at school, maths his most-hated subject
It was not really surprising what class teacher Michael Knust, affectionately and respectfully known as 'Knusti', and Julian Brandt had to say about the latter's primary school days. Brandt spent every spare minute playing football in the school playground and was often late to lessons after the break because the last goal still needed to be scored. His teacher characterised him as a "quiet, very likeable boy" and had to laugh to himself when he was asked about his pupil's conduct at school, which was only average. In other words: Julian Brandt swam in the middle and only stuck his nose in textbooks as much as necessary– but as little as possible. His biggest weakness? Homework. "I thought it was stupid." Especially maths, "the subject I hated".
He summarised his school performance in a pleasantly honest way, as "not disastrous, but nothing to brag about either". He got top marks in sports, where he showed commitment, perseverance and behaved in an outstanding manner by willingly taking the side of the weaker kids. When football was played in PE lessons and different teams had to be picked, Julian Brandt deliberately selected the less talented ones for his team, the ones who had not expected to be chosen first. Down-to-earthness, empathy and, above all, social commitment were the most important values and characteristics that he learned during his four years at primary school. Julian is still grateful to his teacher for this today: "He set an example and taught us humility and modesty. Knusti liked his class."
Best mate and red hair in Sweden
Playing against Max Credo and being nutmegged by him annoyed Julian Brandt. "That was my day over," he moaned. But when Max, his arch-rival, moved to SC Borgfeld, a lifelong friendship was born. "From then on, we were inseparable" Julian revealed. Max became his best mate. With him as a team-mate and with Jens Ahlers– who, as a coach and respected figure, brought as much intuition to the table as he did expertise– a team was formed that made history for Borgfeld. "We cleaned everything up," raved Julian Brandt, "then more and more boys joined us". The Max-Julian-Jens team won the Gothia Cup twice– the largest youth tournament in the world (in terms of the number of participants), which is organised by the Gothenburg-based club BK Häcken. Everyone dyed their hair red afterwards. Julian Brandt became a European U19 champion (2014), won the Confederations Cup with Germany in 2017 and the DFB-Pokal with Borussia Dortmund in 2021– but this triumph still shines like a pearl on a black velvet background for him all these years later. "That was a huge deal," he declared, and the memory of it is "extremely cool".
Looking in the rear-view mirror, Max Credo sees a team-mate who doesn't fit into any mould, who makes the hard things look simple and plays football with an inherent lightness of touch: "Julian always has moments where, as a normal spectator, you're left scratching your head. Special moments that he creates from his lightness. Not many players have that." Rigid routines, overly strict instructions, a coach who is a fanatic when it comes to discipline– and Julian Brandt would have wilted like a primrose. Moving to a youth academy (NLZ) at the age of 12 or 13, as is the norm today, in order to get accustomed to a very high level early on, was therefore never an option for him. "I didn't fancy that," he admitted. "I always just wanted to play. That gave me everything." It was a give and take: the coaches let the boys from SC Borgfeld have their fun, and Julian, Max, Ruben, Malte and all the others were able to develop to their heart's content. Only when things didn't go according to plan did Julian's emotions spiral: "I hated that. It was difficult to pick myself up again."
Brandt has now been part of the Black & Yellow ensemble for almost five years. He may sometimes comes across as "soft and somehow in a bit of a dreamlike state", as the 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' put it in a profile piece, "quite the artist somehow". And even if there were phases between 2019 and the spring of 2024 when he did not fulfil every wish, Borussia Dortmund's No. 19 has long since made himself indispensable at BVB. "Be free with your movements when we have the ball," Edin Terzic tells him before he plays, and then Julian Brandt circles the pitch as if he wants to get to know every blade of grass individually. "In terms of his willingness to run alone, he plays an outstanding role in attack,"remarked BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Brandt has never forgotten his roots. The connection to Borgfeld and Bremen, where his official duties with Borussia took him again in March, remains strong to his day. Together with his father Jürgen, Brandt contributed to SC Borgfeld getting an additional artificial pitch in 2021. This shows how close his first club still is to his heart. The fact that Bremen is not a metropolis like Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf or Hamburg and cannot offer a comparable experience has never bothered him. Quite the contrary. "I love Bremen, I love the Northern German culture," emphasised Brandt. Coming back to his hometown serves as nourishment for the soul amid all the stress, and is an ideal refuge "if you want to escape from the hectic pace of everyday life".
Brandt is in good company among the many prominent sons of Bremen: Bert Trautmann, the legendary Manchester City goalkeeper, was also born here (1923), as were TV host Hans-Joachim 'Kuli' Kulenkampff (1921), band frontman James Last (1929) and Olympic swimming champion Florian Wellbrock (1997). Brandt has not lived in Bremen for 11 years now. But whenever an extreme wind blows through the Dortmund training ground in the Brackel district, as is often the case, it reminds him of his home in Borgfeld: "I don't know it any other way."
