Niebaum's biggest coup, however, was appointing a coach almost completely unknown in Germany at the time, Ottmar Hitzfeld from Loerrach, in the summer of 1991. Hitzfeld and Niebaum became German football's new dynamic duo. Their strategy was to bring back players from Italy's lira paradise. In that regard they were even a step ahead of Bayern Munich, who only managed to get their hands on the league title once between 1991 and 1996. Bundesliga matches and European nights in Dortmund became events from 1992 onward.\n\nThe Westfalenstadion, built for the 1974 World Cup, was christened the La Scala of German football by Franz Beckenbauer.
Bayern, still playing in the draughty Olympic Stadium, looked on almost enviously at a Dortmund scene where glamour and the media circus of FC Hollywood had no place - not yet. Michael Meier, poached as manager from Bayer Leverkusen in 1989, turned Borussia Dortmund into a brand and, something rarely acknowledged today, was voted Manager of the Year by Kicker in both 1992 and 1993.