Jupp Heynckes will end his Bundesliga career where he started it five decades ago, in his hometown of Moenchengladbach.
In his 1,011th game as player and coach, Heynckes will guide his Bayern Munich team for the last time in a Bundesliga match on Saturday - then turn his attention to what are likely to be his two last appearances on the bench: the Champions League final on May 25 and the German Cup final one week later.
Bayern can finish the season with a record 91 points, having sealed the title with a record six matches to spare. In the process, Heynckes' team has broken a series of Bundesliga records and could finish the season with a unique treble for a German club.
The 68-year-old Heynckes will be replaced by former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola as of next season.
''This is like a good screenplay,'' Heynckes said of his return to Moenchengladbach. ''It is not going to be like any other match. The circle is closing, Moenchengladbach is my hometown.''
Heynckes, a star forward with the champion Borussia Moenchengladbach team, began his professional career there in 1963.
He was on the West Germany team that won the 1974 World Cup and took four Bundesliga titles with Moenchengladbach, as well as the UEFA Cup in 1975. As coach, he won three Bundesliga titles in two stints with Bayern and clinched the Champions League for Real Madrid as he was being fired in 1998.
Saturday's match will be a dress rehearsal for Bayern's biggest match of the season when it faces Borussia Dortmund in the first all-German final on May 25 at Wembley.
Heynckes' link to Moenchengladbach explains his slip of the tongue earlier this week. Looking ahead to the Champions League final, he said ''I have great respect for what Borussia Moenchengladbach - sorry, I mean Borussia Dortmund - has achieved.''
His departure from Bayern was not entirely voluntary, but the club did not want to let Guardiola slip away while he was available.
After being coy about his future plans, Heynckes indicated strongly that he would indeed retire. It made no sense to take over another Bundesliga club after the record-breaking season with Bayern and, Heynckes said, he was too old to start a new challenge abroad.
While Bayern can look forward to a relaxed match in Moenchengladbach, Dortmund's warm-up for the Wembley showdown could be a much more intense affair. Dortmund hosts Hoffenheim, which needs a win to have a chance of avoiding relegation.
Two more teams are in danger of joining Greuther Fuerth in going down: Fortuna Duesseldorf and Augsburg.
Augsburg is two points ahead of Hoffenheim in 16th, which means a two-leg playoff with the third-place team from the second division, Kaiserslautern, for a slot in the Bundesliga next season. Duesseldorf is ahead of Augsburg on goal difference, by five.
Augsburg hosts Greuther Fuerth, while Duesseldorf travels to Hannover.
Another key match is in Freiburg, where the home team can seal a slot in qualifying for the Champions League if it beats Schalke. Schalke is only one point ahead in fourth.
Eintracht Frankfurt will hope to make sure of a place in the Europa League when it hosts Wolfsburg. Hamburg, which hosts Bayer Leverkusen, also has a chance of slipping past Frankfurt.
Stuttgart hosts Mainz and Werder Bremen travels to Nuremberg, in the first match since the departure of longtime coach Thomas Schaaf on Wednesday.
All matches of the final round are on Saturday.
