Table Tennis: Timo Boll’s Column  "Olympics in Beijing"
Issue No. 7, May 30, 2008

Bundesliga champions 2007-2008

Last Saturday my club Borussia Düsseldorf won this season Bundesliga champions at home stadium. It was fantastic to hold the silverware myself, because my trophy room lacked such a title before. Now there are only a few champions that I have not yet won. During the Saturday’s match, I together with my teammates once again enjoyed the victory. The Borussia Düsseldorf club is good at creating nice atmosphere of a table tennis festival. We experienced the best table tennis stadium, the best spectators and some interesting programs arranged by the club.

Our rival in the final was TTC Frickenhausen, where the former Chinese national team player Ma Wenge also serves this season. We won the first leg by 6-2, which positioned us as favorites for the champions. As a matter of fact, the Borussia Düsseldorf club has performed very well throughout the whole season, and it deserved the title. I lost one match to Tokic last Saturday. I also need to stay fully concentrated against other European players, but it was not that easy because we had already secured the champions before I started my match.

I moved to the Borussia Düsseldorf club last summer. The main reason behind the transfer was to have better preparations for the Beijing Olympics as here at the Borussia Düsseldorf club, we have the best training conditions, not only the sophisticated training centre, but also the intensive competition in each training session. Now I can say that moving to Duesseldorf was a right decision, the city plays an important role in the European table tennis world.

There are some top players with the Borussia Düsseldorf club, namely, Christian Süss, Petr Korbel, and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, therefore, it is also called Bayern Munich in table tennis. I think such term fits, as both clubs represent the highest level in each field. The excellent functioning of the club ensures good performance of the team. Mr. Franz Beckenbauer, chairman of Bayern Munich, sent us congratulations last Saturday, which is of great significance to me.

(First issued: Titan Sports, May 30, 2008)

METRO Cash & Carry co-sponsors Timo Boll, Christian Süß, the German national team as well as the table tennis club Borussia Düsseldorf.  The table tennis sponsorship of METRO Cash & Carry primarliy targets China market with a view to boosting the MCC brand in the country.

Timo Boll, who ranked world No.1 in 2003 and played one season in the Chinese table tennis league in 2006, has become very popular worldwide and especially in China. Currently he is No.5 in the latest ITTF ranking. Table tennis is one of the five most popular sports in the world and number one in China.