Scott Booth discusses his move to Borussia Dortmund and subsequent success in Holland.
In the spring of 1997, Scott Booth was a highly-rated forward for Aberdeen and Scotland. But when he embarked on a road trip through continental Europe, even he didn't imagine it would lead to a contract with soon-to-be Champions League winners Borussia Dortmund. Booth eventually returned to Aberdeen... in 2003. By that point, he was a world champion with Dortmund and a Dutch Cup winner - in particularly dramatic circumstances - with FC Twente. Adam Bate spoke to the Scot to find out more...
How did the move to Dortmund come about?
There was an offer from elsewhere in Scotland for me but the manager at the time didn't really want me to leave for another Scottish club, even though I only had a few months left on my contract. So I said to the manager, 'Well, I'm going to go abroad then because I want to try something new if you're not going to be reasonable'.
I spoke to a Dutch agent. He scouted around for me. Initially he was going to meet me and we were just going to drive to clubs. The first club I was going to go to was Rapid Vienna. There was a contract on the table for me so we were driving to Vienna. When I met him, he said that he also knew the general manager of Dortmund and they were looking for a bit of ammunition up front. He asked me if I would go for a few days on trial.
So it was basically a stop-off on the way to Vienna. I was there for three days and I was due to play in a match for Ottmar Hitzfeld so he could see me in a game 11 v 11. But my manager at Aberdeen wouldn't even let me play in that game. This was for a club that was about to play in the Champions League final a few weeks later so I was annoyed to say the least. But eventually I managed to get my deal at Dortmund.
Was it a big decision for you to move abroad?
It was and it wasn't. Like I say, some of the doors had been closed for me in Scotland. I wasn't really feeling the idea of going down to England. I don't really know why that was. I suppose if there had been some good English clubs interested then that would have been a possibility. But at that time there weren't as many Scottish players who'd go down to the Championship and things like that.
Also I just fancied trying something new. The Rapid Vienna thing came up and I just thought, 'Why not?' I didn't have kids at the time so it seemed like a good experience and the chance to try a different kind of football.
And you were joining the best team in Europe...
Well, exactly. I couldn't believe I was going to get that chance. I'd gone on trial with the attitude of let's see what happens. At the end of the three days, Hitzfeld came up to me and said 'Yeah, we really like you and want you to come back in the summer'. Two weeks later they won the Champions League.
When I came back in the summer time, Hitzfeld had been moved upstairs as a director of football and Nevio Scala was the man in charge. So I didn't even get to work with Hitzfeld for any length of time, which was a bit annoying because he was the one who brought me in.
As usual at a big club, the new man had his own ideas and brought a few of his own players in. It was always going to be an uphill struggle for me at Dortmund given the size of the squad and the type of player they had but the changes at the top regarding the manager just made things even more difficult.
How did you find the training there? Did you feel you had to be at your best every day?
I did. It really was like that. I'd wake up ahead of every training session and gee myself up like I was preparing for a game. It was that type of intense focus that you had to have. I did treat it that way - that I had to give it absolutely 100 per cent every day just to meet the standard.
That wasn't me trying to be the best, that was just to meet the standard. It was such a massive jump in quality from what I'd been used to for my entire football career. But I think that intense period of training at 100 per cent made me raise my game and made me a better player.
Was it still frustrating not to get a look in there?
Yeah, it was. It was more about the fact that the squad was big and being made bigger by Scala. He was trying to settle himself into German football, having come from Italian football, something he didn't really manage to do. Unfortunately, it was a very unsettled period for Dortmund. They'd won the Champions League and things then changed massively. Not much further down the road there was serious financial problems as well.
Sometimes you get lucky at clubs and you'll be part of a settled team with a settled coaching staff. Other times it just isn't going to be that way. But I would never really look back at my time with Dortmund and think I was unfortunate, to be honest. I enjoy every minute of it. Even though there were periods where I wondered whether I was going to be good enough to play at this level, in the end I feel I did manage to achieve that. I was able to hold my own in games but because of the unsettled nature of Dortmund at that time I was never going to get a run of games.
So you moved on loan...
I could have settled in at Dortmund. I had a three-year contract. I could have just waited my time out for a couple of years and sat back taking the money. I really wanted to keep furthering myself and keep bettering myself. But within about six months of being there, my international career was suffering.
Having been involved heavily with the Scottish national team, I really wanted to stay a part of it. But I realised that by only playing from the bench at Dortmund, it wasn't going to be enough. So I had a conversation with national team coach and he suggested I go on loan. That's why I went on loan to FC Utrecht. It was the right decision because I made the World Cup squad in 1998.
Although you went back to Dortmund, that was the start of a five-year Dutch adventure...
Yeah, I returned to Dortmund at the end of that season after the World Cup and it was a different coach again. He brought in even more new faces and I hadn't been around for six months so I was a little bit out of sight, out of mind. With a few months of being back in Germany I realised that things hadn't changed that much I was getting hungry for games so I decided to move back to Holland with Vitesse.
