Borussia and the Footbonaut
Footbonaut: Dortmund’s Secret Weapon
By JACK BELL In November, Borussia Dortmund was the two-time defending champion of Germany’s Bundesliga, stalking a three-peat and a run deep into the UEFA Champions League.
Only one of those goals was reached. On Wednesday Dortmund plays host to Real Madrid in the first leg of their semifinal series in the top European club tournament. (The other German entry, Bayern Munich, and the other Spanish team, Barcelona, play Tuesday in the other semifinal.) But the club still has one thing others do not.
Last fall Dortmund introduced a novel and striking training device that could be compared to a mixed-martial arts cage or the Thunderdome of movie fame (one player enters, one player leaves), a kind of science-fiction approach to honing an individual’s technical skills — the Footbonaut.
Some assert that the Footbonaut has been Dortmund’s secret weapon. It is more likely, however, that the device simply helped already technically proficient players become even sharper and more capable.
The Footbonaut, which is the brainchild of the Berlin-based Christian Güttler, is controlled by a tablet computer and is about 15 square yards. A player enters and takes up residence in a circle at the center of the device’s artificial turf surface. Balls come spitting his way from eight directions and he must quickly hit them first time or settle and then place the ball into one of 72 panels, depending upon which one lights up (think “Hollywood Squares“).
“We are convinced that at the very least the Footbonaut will improve technique but will also benefit spacial awareness and peripheral vision,” Sven Mislintat, Dortmund’s chief scout, told the club’s Web site. “And we can closely monitor a player’s development with data gleaned from the machine. There is no reason why a player cannot translate the actions practiced in this environment onto the actual playing field.”
Mustafa Amini, Dortmund’s 20-year-old Australian midfielder, said: “It’s as if you are surrounded by 10 colleagues who are there only to serve you balls. In the course of normal training, that level of intensity just is not possible. The Footbonaut allows you to work on any weaknesses and ensures that you play at pace but with precision.”
The device has attracted significant interest around the world — from coaches and people commenting on social media. One fan on a forum on the Liverpool Web site said: “We need to get this right away! Some great stuff.” There was also a response on a forum on Manchester United’s site.
“It is the perfect tool to improve ball-handling skills,” Dortmund Coach Jürgen Klopp said “It demands precise skills used at speed in a physically tough environment. It’s quite a package!”
In an e-mail, Güttler said the device comes in a number of configurations and that the price depends on how sophisticated you want it, ranging from $2.4 million to $3.5 million. Because of contractual restrictions, he said he could not say how much Dortmund’s configuration cost. But like so much else in life, if you have to ask how much it costs you probably can’t afford it.
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