As the fourth official raised the board to usher the substitution of the number ‘24’, it was as if 40,000 Werder fans were receiving the signal to get to their feet and honour Tim Borowski. On leaving the fray, the midfielder acknowledged all four stands in the stadium, applauded and made his way from the pitch at the Weser Stadium for the last time as a Werder Bremen player. His team mates on the bench used the moment to take the German international in their arms and bid their own farewell. When Borowski decided to head towards the changing rooms, the massed crowd in the stadium again rippled with applause and, for a moment, the match itself took second place – Pure emotion!!
There were no tears though, apparently! “If anything there were a couple of beads of sweat. My eyes were dry but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t moved. I am very happy! I had hoped that it would come to this. I’m delighted that the fans acknowledged the fact that I gave my all right to the last,” remarked ‘Boro’, who was especially delighted about his goal: “That was a very special moment, particularly in the last home game.” And the midfield man looked back on his time in Bremen proudly: “There are certain people who made my career at Werder possible, I always tried to use what they taught me, and that worked very well for me.”
Tears or not, there were certainly goose-pimples upon goose-pimples under every jersey and suit: “The manner in which the fans bid him farewell was very moving. Everything slotted together, the atmosphere before the game, ‘Boro’s’ goal and the applause as he was substituted. I had goose bumps myself. I’m quite sure that all that will make his departure more difficult for him,” said general manager Klaus Allofs, who was very proud of how the Werder fans reacted: “You could certainly praise our fans for that. They are certainly not happy about his move to Bayern but they are able to rationalise that and honour his performances in the last few weeks as well as everything that he has done and achieved with us here over the years.