Schmidt and Kleindienst look ahead to reunion: "There will be a fight for every inch."
Kleindienst not only prepares to face his former club, but will also hope to get some balls past FCH keeper Kevin Müller; a close friend who served as the best man at his wedding. Schmidt had a wry joke to add when speaking on the coming Kleindienst-Müller duel.
| Tim Kleindienst lifts the 2. Bundesliga trophy with Heidenheim in 2023 | Alexander Hassenstein, Getty Images |
Fresh off his recent debut as a senior German national team international, Borussia Mönchengladbach striker Tim Kleindienst now prepares for a crucial league showdown with his former club. It took some 11 years (not to mention three separate stints with Heidenheim) for the 29-year-old journeyman to finally establish himself as a reliable goal-scorer worthy of a national team call-up.
The Albogen club accorded him a chance to prove himself in the top flight, eventually playing his way into the sights of both his current club and Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann. Kleindienst maintains a debt of gratitude to FCH trainer Frank Schmidt and still keeps up contact with FCH keeper Kevin Müller, who served as the best man at his wedding.
“Of course, I'm really looking forward to the game and to seeing my old colleagues again," Kleindienst - as quoted by German footballing journalist Jan Lustig - said ahead of Saturday's clash, "It's the first time that I've played against a club where I played for years and experienced so much. It will be a special game for me personally."
"[Kevin and I] are really good friends," Kleindienst continued, "I haven't spoken to Frank Schmidt recently. That probably won't happen again before the game because we're both focused on our tasks. I'm nevertheless looking forward to welcoming him to the Borussia-Park on Saturday."
Kleindienst may not have had to a chance to catch up with Schmidt as of late, but the striker has certainly been in the 50-year-old trainer's thoughts. In a recent interview with Lustig's Kicker Magazine colleague Timo Lämmerhirt, Schmidt had no shortage of praise for his former player.
"I don't know if there has ever been a player like this in the German national team," Schmidt told Lämmerhirt, "a player who runs so much, sprints so much, for whom no distance is too far. He put himself at the service of the team just as he did with us or most recently in Gladbach. Sometimes there just aren't limits."
"They will be a fight on the pitch for every inch," Schmidt said of Kleindienst's reunion with his close friend Müller, "They'll have to put everything aside [in this duel] but Kevin [Müller] retains the advantage in that he's able to use his hands."