In February 1983, on a training field near Ostfildern in the forested south-east of Stuttgart, local sixth-tier side Viktoria Backnang played a friendly against Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kiev, who were wintering at Sportschule Ruit. Dynamo won easily and was much the better side, but for Backnang’s young player-manager, the game was a revelation. Even allowing for the fact that Dynamo was a highly trained professional team, he was startled by how it always seemed to have an extra man. When the ball went out for a throw-in, he counted the players Dynamo had, just to make sure it hadn’t actually sneaked on a 12th.
What Ralf Rangnick Represents for Manchester United
