Borussia Dortmund is one of Europe’s most beloved clubs, though an air of frustration has started to hang around the Westfalenstadion. What was once a club that consistently challenged for titles is now a club that has to fight tooth and nail just to qualify for the Champions League.
Dortmund are far from the golden age of the mid-to-late nineties. It has been 13 years since they lifted the Meisterschale. They came painstakingly close most recently in the 2022/23 season, losing out on the final day due to a shock draw with Mainz in the Westfalenstadion, while Bayern Munich took three vital points against Köln on the final matchday with an 89th-minute winner from Jamal Musiala to take first place in the Bundesliga through goal difference..
They reached the Champions League final in Wembley during the 2023/24 season, losing, of course, to Real Madrid. Marco Reus and Mats Hummels both subsequently departed from the club.
Ten years, eight managers
In the ten years since Jurgen Klopp departed from the Westfalenstadion to manage Liverpool, Dortmund has had eight different managers (nine if you include interim managers). Each of these managers had different playstyles, with short stints that often didn’t allow players to adapt before eventually moving on after a season or two.
The closest Dortmund has been to winning major silverware since Klopp has been with Edin Terzic. His initial stint as interim manager to finish the season, after Lucien Favre was sacked in December 2020, saw Dortmund win the DFB Pokal in May 2021. Marco Rose was appointed for the 2021/22 season, but left in May 2022. Terzic was then re-appointed on a permanent basis to manage the team. In his first full season, Dortmund finished second to Bayern only through goal difference, the closest the team had come to winning the league in almost ten years.
The following season saw Dortmund finish in a disappointing fifth place, although, as a result of their fairytale run in the Champions League, they were able to qualify directly for the 2024/25 Champions League, essentially saving the season. These two seasons managed to give some hope to fans that improvement was being made and that real success was coming.
It looked like the road ahead for Dortmund was clearer than ever, a manager that had two seasons where the team was desperately close to success and a team of players who had proven they were good enough to finish the job. It all came crashing down after the heartbreak in London. Mats Hummels had publicly criticised Terzic’s tactics in an interview before the final. Hummels said that he was furious that Terzic had the team playing in such a “subservient” and “inferior” style of football, while complimenting the work done by assistant managers Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender. As a BVB veteran, Hummels’ influence on the rest of the squad could not be denied.
BVB fans could not entirely disagree either, the team had suffered a couple terrible league results, but Hummels had turned the dressing room against his manager. Terzic left, and Hummels’ contract was not renewed. Everything that had been built in the last two seasons came crashing down in the weeks following the European final at Wembley.
Dortmund’s starboys
For as long as we can remember, Dortmund was a club that took chances on young talent and gave them a chance to play first-team football for an elite European club, a chance that could not be found in England or Spain.
Some of the best players in the world right now played for Borussia Dortmund at one point. The favourite to win this year’s Ballon D’or, Ousmane Dembele, had his breakthrough season at Dortmund and transferred to Barcelona in 2017 for €148 million, a sum they only finished paying in 2024.
Robert Lewandowski, Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, these are just a few of the players who got their ‘big break’ at Dortmund.
German publication BILD recently reported that Dortmund have been having trouble convincing English clubs to sell their young players, they are no longer willing to “give away their talent and see them take off in the Bundesliga.” Dortmund were interested in Arsenal academy graduate Ethan Nwaneri, though the 18-year-old Englishman opted to extend his contract at Arsenal.
Dortmund haven’t exactly used their academy players well either in recent years. Kjell Wätjen was one of the few Dortmund U20s players brought up to the senior squad during Edin Terzic’s time as manager. While he rarely made appearances, when he did, he looked promising. He travelled to London for the Champions League final in 2024 and since then, with Terzic’s departure and replacement by Nuri Sahin, has been left to the reserve squad, just now having been sent on loan to Bochum.
Julien Duranville has also proved to be a promising young winger, especially during his appearances against Barcelona, though he has been plagued with injury.
Despite currently lacking a starboy for the media to fawn over, Dortmund’s squad is not empty of talent or passion.
If you asked Dortmund fans who they would pick to captain the team, the majority would say Nico Schlotterbeck. The twenty-five-year-old joined BVB in 2022, and has since become a fan-favourite. The departure of Mats Hummels after the final in Wembley left big questions surrounding the team’s defensive leadership, but Schlotterbeck stepped up to answer them. He has been praised for his consistency and passion, even during the difficult spell under Nuri Sahin, where the squad was routinely embarrassed, leaving them 11th on the table before Niko Kovac was brought in to steady the ship.
He has also been praised for his sturdiness, often escaping injury scares. During the Champions League league phase match against Barcelona, in which they lost 3-2, Schlotterbeck was carried off on a stretcher after the game having suffered an apparent ankle injury, four days later he started in Dortmund’s game against Hoffenheim and played the full 90 minutes.
Schlotti’s season ended early in April 2025 due to a meniscus tear in his left knee, but I have very few doubts that when he comes back he will bring that same passion and consistency.
Karim Adeyemi is another young player dedicated to Borussia Dortmund in the long term. The German winger scored 12 goals last season, including a hattrick against Celtic in the Champions League. He is another BVB player who suffers from injuries more than usual. He is known for his speed and ability in front of goal, and in an interview with Bundesliga.com alluded to staying at Dortmund for his entire career.
The signing of Serhou Guirassy, who scored 21 Bundesliga goals last season, and Daniel Svensson, a young left-back who could really grow into his position, have been good for the club. Jobe Bellingham is yet to really be tested in black and yellow, especially since he missed the “Bellingham derby” between Dortmund and Real Madrid during the Club World Cup due to suspension.
You could talk about the players all day, but I don’t think that the players are the problem at Dortmund.
Appointing nostalgia: the Sahin experiment
Nuri Sahin was appointed to manage Borussia Dortmund in July 2024. In the official announcement on the BVB website, Lars Rickens is quoted saying “BVB is in [Sahin’s] DNA as a player and as an assistant coach. We have no doubt that Nuri is the right head coach for us.” This was the first tiny crack in the foundations. Sahin had no past managerial success to point to, no qualification to manage a team of this magnitude. This appointment was more of a desperate yearning for the past glories of the Klopp days during which Sahin had played for the club, but there was no vision for the future.
The season began and the results were okay. The first matchday saw Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0, in Europe they demolished Glasgow Celtic 7-1 in the second matchday of the Champions League. Very quickly it became apparent that away games were very difficult for the team. Losing 5-1 to Stuttgart, 2-1 to Union Berlin and even 4-2 to newly promoted Kiel in January. Dortmund were quickly eliminated from the DFB Pokal by Wolfsburg in the second round after a 117th minute goal.
One game stands out in my memory of Sahin’s time at Dortmund, away to Real Madrid in the Champions League. I was in the Santiago Bernabeu, watching my hope for a good season drain as the clock ticked on. Dortmund found themselves two goals ahead at half-time, a pleasant surprise given the final in Wembley had taken place less than six months before.
In the second half, Gittens, one of the goalscorers and most effective attackers thus far, was replaced by Anton, a defender. Sahin was trying to park the bus, against Real Madrid, in their own stadium. Within seven minutes of this substitution, the game was level at 2-2. In the final 15 minutes of the match, Julian Ryerson, who had coped quite well against Vini Jr., was replaced by Emre Can, a player without the pace to defend against a threat like Vini. By full-time, the score was Dortmund 2, Real Madrid 5. Vini had completed a hat-trick. It was an embarrassment.
The final nails in the coffin for Sahin were the 4-2 loss to Leverkusen in the Westfalenstadion, and then the 2-1 loss in Europe to Bologna. This was Bologna’s only win during their European campaign, and it meant that Dortmund were no longer guaranteed to go straight to the Round of 16, with the new Champions League format. Nuri Sahin was sacked that night.
Picking up the pieces: Niko Kovac
Niko Kovac was appointed to manage Dortmund on January 30th 2025. He had a difficult task ahead of him, with the club sitting 10th in Bundesliga. Unlike the two previous managers, he had experience managing big clubs. He led Eintracht Frankfurt to a DFB Pokal in 2018, and managed Bayern in 2019, when they won the double.
The beginning of his tenure was rocky, but the results gradually got better. The team were more physical, pressing their opponents and winning duels. The team relied on quick breaks to create chances, this eventually led to being knocked out of Europe in the quarter finals of the Champions League by Barcelona. This exit did not sting as much because at that point in the season, Barcelona were generally considered to be the best team in Europe. The second leg saw Dortmund defeat Barca in the Westfalenstadion thanks to a Guirassy hat-trick, but it was not enough to overturn the deficit from the first leg.
Towards the end of the season the team dug in, and managed to take 22 points from a possible 24 in the final eight games. This resulted in the team finishing 4th in the Bundesliga, qualifying for the Champions League, essentially saving the season from complete disaster.
Dortmund’s Club World Cup performance was underwhelming, going out to Real Madrid in the quarter finals. A last minute save from Courtois prevented the sides from going to extra time. Nevertheless, with the right transfers and preparation this season, I don’t see why Kovac couldn’t lead the team to challenge for a title this season.
Who’s really at the wheel?
It seems that the current problems for BVB lie deeper than the manager, or the players. The current CEO of Borussia Dortmund is Hans-Joachim Watzke and the Sporting Director is ex-Dortmund player Sebastian Kehl.
Watzke was one of the main faces responsible for preventing the financial collapse of BVB in the early 2000s. He employed strict financial discipline to slowly solve the €100 million debt that the club had racked up by the 2003/04 season. He is well-regarded for doing “good business” for Dortmund, and financially the club has benefitted.
However, despite moderate success and being in a much better financial situation now, the club remains quite frugal in their business, especially in the transfer market. This is why the club has become synonymous with elite scouting and young stars. That option has slowly faded away with English clubs, as previously mentioned, now refusing to sell their young talent for a pittance to watch their career take off overseas. Dortmund’s most expensive signing was Ousmane Dembele in 2016, a measly €35 million compared to the spending of many other clubs.
This frugality is now holding Dortmund back. It even seems that the hiring of Nuri Sahin was some attempt at saving money, with the ex-Dortmund player earning a reported €2.5 million annual salary, while both his predecessor and successor earned €3.5 million, with Kovac receiving €750,000 extra as a result of Champions League qualification.
If Dortmund is going to have any real success, it requires spending more money than is currently being spent. There is no lack of money coming into the club, players are routinely being sold for over triple of the price they were brought in for, most recently Jamie Gittens was sold to Chelsea for over €60 million. Jude Bellingham was sold for an initial fee of €103 million, with €30 million in add-ons. Losing the Champions League final in 2024 actually made Dortmund more money than winning would have due to a clause in the transfer agreement.
Just this Summer, Dortmund began a new partnership with Vodafone worth up to €180 million. It is evident that Dortmund’s coffers are nowhere near the catastrophic levels of 2005, why do they still act like it?
I can’t go on without discussing the Rheinmetall deal. A deal that goes against everything I believe that football should stand for. In 2024, Watzke took responsibility for coming to an agreement for a sponsorship deal with Düsseldorf-based arms manufacturer Rheinmetall worth up to €9 million. Rheinmetall’s logo has since featured on advertising boards throughout the Westfalenstadion during matches, though they do not feature on kits.
Rheinmetall is involved in manufacturing mostly artillery equipment and tank equipment. A football team should never be associated with a weapons manufacturer, but especially at a time when the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for the leaders of the state being armed.
Fans objected in the 2024 November member’s meeting, with 65% of attendees voting against the partnership and 29% in favour of the partnership. DW reported that Watzke “wanted a full vote of the membership to get a complete picture of the strength of feeling.” Watzke sold the soul of the club for a measly €9 million, for a sponsorship from a company that goes against everything football should be about.
Time for a new path?
It has become obvious that the ambitions and talents of both the players and the manager are not the issue, but rather it’s the management at the top. Hans-Joachim Watzke’s stability-first mindset, while it may have saved the club two decades ago, it won’t save us from the future.
Dortmund is no longer the club that everyone admires for being a scrappy underdog, the gimmick is gone. Business is being done better by other teams, Leverkusen, Frankfurt, even RB Leipzig are outpacing Dortmund, making less money and performing just as well on the pitch, if not better.
Until Dortmund finds leadership that looks to the future, rather than cling to the past, Dortmund will stall. They are putting flashy new tyres on a car from 2005, without ever servicing the engine. My fear, as a fan, is that the mediocrity that Dortmund suffers from now will just become worse over time.
