A long list of stars have honed their skills and talent at a very young age in the Bundesliga, especially at Borussia Dortmund, but why is that? Some excellent business has been conducted over the years at BVB and in this blog we are going to investigate this specific business model and how it works for the German side. The transition has not been an easy one—they were on the brink of bankruptcy—but a change in leadership and with some help from a rival club, they managed to change the tide and become one of the talent powerhouses in the footballing world.
Make sure to visit the LV BET Sports Blog for the best articles related to your favourite sports. Visit our Twitter page as well to get all the latest news about transfers, betting tips, promotions and much more.
Failure before success
Dortmund’s reputation at the moment hasn’t always been this way. In the early 2000’s, the club was in a terrible position financially and also performance wise as the reign in German football was firmly in the hands of Bayern Munich. During those times even Bayer Leverkusen routinely finishing above them in the table. The Leverkusen side was spearheaded by emerging stars such as Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Ballack and more.
The Yellow Wall enjoyed many successes, winning the domestic title in 1995, 1996 and 2002 as well as the Champions League in 1997. That success caused a problem: the people in charge of the club wanted to beat Bayern Munich at their own game and splashed the cash to sign players such as Thomas Rosicky in 2001 and paying huge salaries to keep and attract new players. This model was not sustainable as the money going out was considerably more than the money coming in from ticket sales, merchandising and tv rights. As a result of this mismanagement of resources, the club was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2004, ranking up their debt bill to £120m. At the height of the crisis, Hans-Joachim Watzke was appointed as the new CEO. His hard decisions turned the club’s fortunes into what it is today.
Developing the system
Learning from the mistakes done in the past, the new CEO did not point fingers at his predecessors but paid close attention to what they did so the same mistakes could be prevented going forward. The message from Watzke was clear: Borussia Dortmund will never go into debt in pursuit of on pitch success.
Instead of going after established names and paying big bucks for their signature, Dortmund wanted to invest in young talented players carrying less risk should the investment not pay off. The aim was to buy cheap, nurture and give time to the players and when they eventually move on to other clubs, Dortmund will pocket decent profit.
In four of the following six campaigns, Dortmund ranked amongst the three youngest teams in the division and when they finished ninth in 2007 and 13th in 2008, they were still able to attract visionary coach Jurgen Klopp. Klopp’s heavy-metal football style was the perfect fit for BVB, Watzke wanted to supply the German coach with players who bought into his style of play and the average age dropped from 27 in 2007 to 23 in 2010. Klopp managed to win back to back titles with a team of an average age of 23 and also got to the UEFA Champions League final in 2013 with a squad value of £30m.
Methodology
Simply deciding to sign youngsters was not the one all be all, as rivals Leverkusen had the same idea. They hired Klopp, Tuchel, Bosz and Favre who would give promising talent a chance to break into the senior team. They also invested heavily in the academy, the Borussia Dortmund youth houses 200 players from the age of nine years upwards. Some players live on site, go to school and the club keeps in touch with the local population through summer camps for children. A similar attitude is shown for the coaching staff, they help them and it’s normal for the club to pay the bills for trainers who want to pursue their coaching badges—each coach is left to his own methods in terms of preferred formations and football style. This, coupled with the fact that BvB’s youth academy players are raised in a versatile manner, may often lead to a brand new style of football which, more often than not, ends up being highly entertaining.
We are sure that you have heard of the Footbonaut, the training machine that Borussia Dortmund uses to hone the skills of players in terms of their passing ability, control and reactions to changing scenarios. Players are asked to attend a session in the Footbonaut once a week but they are more than welcome to do more sessions. Namely Christian Pulisic and Mario Gotze used the machine the most during their time with the German club.
Dortmund’s innovations dont end with football. Keen to produce youngsters with the mental abilities to withstand the pressure of professional football, Dortmund consult with the psychology department of Bochum University on how to develop self confidence and decision making in their students.
The future
As young players are given time to develop their skills, Borussia Dortmund rarely fail to reach their goals.
Dortmund spent £32m on Sancho, Dembele, Aubameyang and Pulisic. As all of the players moved to other clubs, Borussia Dortmund made £309m in profit after selling them later on.
Dortmund have managed the truly remarkable achievement of staying competitive at the top of the Bundesliga despite losing their best players and essentially functioning as the Hogwarts of football—plucking players out of obscurity and converting them into household names. Dortmund’s hit rate is dangerously high, when they sold Ousmane Dembele, they simply gave more minutes to Christian Pulisic. When it became obvious that the American would leave, they focused their attention on Jadon Sancho and when the Englishman eventually moved back to England, the team turned to Erling Haaland.
With Erling Haaland, the Norwegian opted for BVB instead of other clubs who were willing to offer higher wages is a recurrent theme for Dortmund. Dembele and Sancho both turned down Arsenal to go to Germany, whilst Alexander Isak rejected Real Madrid to link up with Thomas Tuchel. In 2020, they emerged with the hot priority that is Jude Bellingham, who refused Manchester United’s offer and chose to wear the yellow-and-black striped shirt instead.
The quickest route to the top goes through Borussia Dortmund.
What are you thoughts on this model, do you wish that your team applies the same method? Can just about any club reinvent themselves the way Dortmund did?