Tibor's Winning Ways

Germany international Tibor Weissenborn enjoyed an amazing first season in the Netherlands. He came, saw and conquered, winning the national and European Cup Winners Cup title with his new club Bloemendaal.

After domestioc success, he has now set his sights on playing in the World Cup final against his friends from the Netherlands.

Dutch writer Annemarie van der Eem caught up with the personable young German.

His first season in the Netherlands didn’t just bring Tibor Weissenborn new friends, it also provided a pair of impressive titles, the European Cup Winners Cup in England and the Hoofdklasse, the Dutch domestic crown.

“That tournament (European Cup) was fantastic. It was also nice to see that not only did we have a good team, but we can also win titles. Often you see strong teams that can’t win anything.”

The European title gave Bloemendaal moral support in the play-offs for the national championship, later in May.

“The play-offs were amazing. You can’t compare it with Germany. The big crowds, the emotion; everybody in Bloemendaal came to see the matches.”

Weissenborn’s highlight of the season was the 4-3 win in the semi-final against the titleholders Oranje Zwart. Fifteen minutes before the end, the guests from Eindhoven were 3-0 up before Bloemendaal fought back to level at 3-3.

“It was really emotional when Karel Klaver scored the golden goal in the last minute of extra time,” says Weissenborn. “All the small parts fell together in the end.”

In the best of three final against Amsterdam, Bloemendaal were also forced to fight back from a deficit before triumphing. Did Weissenborn add a little German spirit of never giving up to his Dutch team?

“I don’t know whether that was my influence. But it is typically German, that’s true. We always have the power to come back and fight till the end; that’s in the German nature. Although we didn’t play in the German style but in the Bloemendaal style.”

Not only had the hockey gone well for Tibor Weissenborn, but professionally he also had an interesting year.

“‘I worked for FieldHockey.tv from Monday till Friday, so my schedule was quite full with hockey, hockey, hockey. Besides editing matches, Weissenborn also conducted interviews throughout the season.

It is no surprise that Weissenborn is a big supporter of the German football team during the World Cup finals in his own country.

“I don’t think you can compare Jurgen Klinsmann’s team to our team. Hockey and football are two different sports. But I hope we can show the same emotion on the field as the German football team; you can see they’re having fun. It’s nice that they played well; in the past it was very defensive and horrible to watch.”

Watching the national hockey squad is no punishment either.

“We play attacking the whole time. We are a young team and want to win titles”.

“We have good strikers and a really strong defence. The midfield is maybe not so good, but defensively it’s well organised and with our fast strikers we have a very dangerous counter. I think Australia is the big favourite and then you also have Holland and Germany. But we’re tough to beat, that’s for sure.’

Fact File - Tibor Weissenborn
Born: 20 March 1981
Club: HC Bloemendaal (Berliner HV)
Honours: Hoofdklasse (Dutch National Championship) 2006 winners, European Cup Winners Cup 2006 winners
International caps: 245*
International goals: 31*
International honours: European Nations Cup 1999, 2003, World Cup 2002, Olympic Games (bronze) 2004
*On 21 June 2006