Toni Leistner has once again made himself indispensable at Hertha BSC

Toni Leistner still had an important message to announce. So important that he even repeated it.

The captain of Hertha BSC trudged through the mixed zone of the stadium in Magdeburg, past Florian Niederlechner, who was giving information about his team’s 3-1 away win against 1. FC Magdeburg. “What an assist!” said Leistner as he passed. “What an assist! Please feel free to mention it!” Niederlechner smiled.

In fact, Hertha’s center forward owed his fifth goal of the season to make it 2-1 for the Berlin second division soccer team to a considerable extent to the preparatory work of his colleague Toni Leistner. After a corner from Michael Cuisance, the central defender headed the ball into the six-yard box and Niederlechner just had to nod off.

For Leistner it was the first time he was involved in a goal this season. Which worked out quite well as he had also facilitated Magdeburg’s opening goal ten minutes earlier. Mohammed El Hankouri ran towards him, Leistner was in reverse gear, and when he reached just outside the penalty area, Hertha’s captain turned to the right, clearing the way for the Magdeburg player to reach the goal.

In the end, Leistner’s misstep was of no consequence. On the one hand, because Hertha was still turning the game around. On the other hand, because the Berlin defender had an extremely stable performance overall in his comeback after a three-week injury break.

Leistner came into the team for the ailing Linus Gechter. Would he have played if Gechter had been fit? “Ifs, ifs and buts, that’s a thing in football,” said Hertha coach Cristian Fiél and smiled. Whatever that meant.

At the start of the season, the 34-year-old Leistner remained in office as captain, but he still had to make do with a place on the bench behind Gechter, who was almost 14 years his junior. Only when Gechter was out due to a shoulder injury did the veteran join the team and from then on he was always in the starting line-up – until he injured himself in the home game against 1. FC Köln at the beginning of November.

This Wednesday we face Cologne again, this time in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup (6 p.m., live on ZDF and Sky) and this time in Cologne. Gechter is still missing, so Leistner will be in the starting line-up again.

For Hertha’s defender, the encounter is also a rendezvous with their own past. At the beginning of 2020 he moved to Cologne on loan from Queens Park Rangers. Leistner stayed there for six months and during this time played his first and to date only 13 Bundesliga games. He celebrated his debut on February 22, 2020. In the Berlin Olympic Stadium and against Hertha. FC won 5-0.

In Dresden, Leistner and Fiél were teammates

Both teams have met seven times since then. Of all these duels, Berlin only won one, while Cologne won four. That should change this Wednesday in the cup. With Toni Leistner in the not unimportant role as leader of the back four.

“He is an old warhorse and is simply good for the team with his experience,” says Fiél about the oldest player in his squad. Both have known each other for what feels like an eternity since they were under contract with Dynamo Dresden more than ten years ago, Fiél at the end of his career as a player, Leistner at the beginning.

Both played together for Dynamo a total of 13 times between 2011 and 2014, and Fiél even came on as a substitute for Leistner once – in the away game in Cologne. “Everyone knows what makes each other tick,” says Hertha’s coach. “We both do everything we can to be successful. That unites us and makes it easy for us to work together.”

Leistner has the best duel record

But apparently that wasn’t always the case – if you interpret Fiél’s words correctly. Toni Leistner is the first former teammate he trains. Fiél didn’t know what that would be like before the season.

“Toni is a good boy,” he says now, but there were also moments in their collaboration “where I kind of forgot that I was no longer his teammate – and vice versa.” They had to have one or two conversations with each other, “since then everything has been fine,” says Hertha’s coach.

Leistner owes his place in the team neither to the protection of his boss nor – as now against his former club Cologne – to nostalgic feelings. He owes it to his solid to good performances.

Last weekend in Magdeburg, Leistner won 83 percent of his duels. With 71 percent of duels won this season, he has the best value of all Hertha’s central defenders. Marton Dardai and Linus Gechter each have 51 percent, Pascal Klemens 55. For Marc Kempf, who has since moved to Italy, it was 64 percent at the start of the season.

Leistner gives the team and especially the almost all young colleagues in defense support. Not only because he is a relentless tackler, but also a keen communicator. After the game in Magdeburg, Toni Leistner wrote on his Instagram account: “Papa is back.”