Dortmund’s kids are alright
We have a chat with BVB’S talented crop of youngsters
It’s pretty fun to be a young player at Dortmund right now, and with good reason – the German club are gathering the world’s finest talent and giving them the platform to impress on. FFT drops in to find out more about the newest kids on BVB’S block
It’s a misty winter’s day in Germany’s Ruhr valley, and Fourfourtwo is busy watching a mischievous teenager play knock-a-door-run. This isn’t just any teenager, though. Two days earlier, FFT had seen the very same adolescent dazzle 81,000 spectators amid an electric atmosphere inside Signal Iduna Park – providing the decisive moment for Borussia Dortmund against RB Leipzig, a blistering individual run and cross for the only goal. Ousmane Dembele may be worth millions, but it’s clear on this Monday lunchtime that he’s still pretty much like any other 19-year-old. As he walks through BVB’S training complex, the Frenchman can’t resist knocking on a door and cheekily sauntering off, an innocent prank designed to amuse the onlooking Raphael Guerreiro, one of his best friends at the club.
Dembele tries to make Guerreiro laugh plenty more when several of Dortmund’s young stars get together for a FFT photoshoot. He bounds enthusiastically onto the space hopper we have brought especially for the occasion, only to be outwitted by Julian Weigl, who catches him unawares with the bunny ears behind the head pose. The old jokes are the best.
It’s pretty fun to be a young player at Dortmund, and with good reason. The German club are gathering together some of the world’s finest emerging talent, and giving them a chance to flourish in both the Bundesliga and the Champions League. Add January signing Alexander Isak to a list that already contains Dembele, Guerreiro, Weigl, Christian Pulisic and plenty of others too, and the battle for Die Schwarzgelben’s Young Player of the Year prize is going to be competitive.
“The coach always says that if you perform well, then he’ll put you on the field,” Pulisic explains to FFT – and indeed against Leipzig, it was the American who came off the bench for the final half-hour, while Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle sat and watched on.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” Dembele adds. “If you are good, you will play.”
With that philosophy, BVB boss Thomas Tuchel is simply carrying on where predecessor Jurgen Klopp left off. Tuchel’s background as a youth coach is undoubtedly a factor, though Dortmund’s ethos stems not just from the first-team coach, but also from the very top of the football club.
“We want to make stars here,” says BVB’S youth co-ordinator Lars Ricken, scorer of one of the most famous goals in the club’s history, in the
We brought in Emre Mor, Marc Bartra, Guerreiro, Dembele and now Isak. We also have six first-team players that came from our youth setup in Mario Gotze, Nuri Sahin, Marco Reus, Christian Pulisic, Felix Passlack and the captain, Marcel Schmelzer.
“Tuchel [left] has the courage to give youngsters a chance. He was the coach of the youth department with Mainz – in 2009, his players beat Dortmund in the final of the under-19s German championship and we said, ‘OK, in the future he’ll become a trainer for Dortmund.’
“We want to make our own stars here and, of course, the profit is high. In 2005, the club was almost broke – since then we have made at least €60 million from players educated in our youth department.”
“I RESPECT KLOPP, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT MOVING TO LIVERPOOL”
The primary aim, though, is for those players to remain right where they are – in the first team at Dortmund. That is why they recently signed Pulisic up to an extended contract.
Pulisic is only 18, but he already has a year of first-team experience with BVB and 11 caps for the United States. At 17 years and 212 days old, at home to Hamburg last season, he became the youngest-ever non-german goalscorer in the Bundesliga. A month later, he became the youngest player to score for the US in the modern era. Put simply, he’s one of the hottest prospects in the world. Before he signed that new contract, there was much talk of a possible transfer to Liverpool.
“I have respect for Klopp and I know him – he was very welcoming to me here – but I was never really thinking about going to Liverpool,” Pulisic says. “Dortmund have given me everything. If I work very hard here, I will play, and I love this club. I’m happy in the city, I’m just really content with everything here at the moment.”
What is immediately obvious is that Pulisic is mature beyond his 18 years. Speaking to him, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was 28, and straight after this interview he’s off to buy a kitchen, not your typical teenager’s purchase. You sense a laser-like focus on making the most of the potential he clearly has – potential that’s already led some on the other side of the Atlantic to predict he’ll become the greatest US player of all time. No pressure then, Christian... “In the USA they’re always looking for a star soccer player because we haven’t had one for a long time, since Landon Donovan,” Pulisic says. “I try not to look at it like that. I don’t need to be a star figure for the USA – there’s no point putting the extra pressure on myself. It gives me great pride to play for my country and I’ve just tried to live in the moment, not think too much about the future and what you can become, but enjoy the time now.”
He’s certainly doing that, having been scouted by BVB at the age of 15, after previous trips to European shores to train at other clubs.
“I had a few training sessions with Tottenham and Southampton,” he reveals. “I played for the US national team in some tournaments in Europe and Dortmund had scouts there. They liked me, I suppose. I knew about how Dortmund developed young players. I came here, liked it a lot and they offered me something that I could not refuse.
“If you’d asked me three years ago when I started with the youth team, I did not think I’d be in this position today. Ever since I signed, I’ve just set small goals for myself, wanting to get onto the field as much as possible. Scoring my first goal was incredible – you never forget your first goal. I celebrated by doing a dab because I didn’t know what to do! My family were extremely proud of me. They’ve always been very supportive of me, so it must have meant a lot to them, too.”
Of Croatian descent, Pulisic was raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania – a small town once specifically created for the workers in the eponymous chocolate factory. When he was seven, his family moved to England for a year, with his mother on a teaching exchange in the UK. While based in the Oxfordshire village of Tackley, he joined non-league Brackley Town’s junior setup. “I enjoyed it so much and I’m still in touch with a few guys from the team,” Pulisic says. “I’d started playing soccer in America before that, but England is where I really started to get serious and enjoy it a lot more and that is what brought on my real passion for the game. Every day after school I played with my friends for hours in the park.
“I got to go and watch all sorts of different matches, too: Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal... I remember going to Fulham, too. Seeing those games, I wanted to play.”
Pulisic (left) is nicknamed ‘Figo’ by his dad – the Portugal star is the teenager’s idol and the player that he has always aspired to be like, particularly now he’s playing in a wide attacking role at BVB, having also operated centrally in the past. Cousin Will is a goalkeeper in the club’s youth team but his father is now back in the US after initially moving to Germany to help him settle in.
“It’s not easy moving your life to a different country and I do miss my family every day,” Christian admits. “After a hard day, not having someone to talk to can be difficult, but there are a lot of people here who have helped me – even when I could not understand German at first. Nuri Sahin [the Bundesliga’s youngest-ever player when he made his Dortmund debut in 2005] was one player who always talked to me about how things worked in the first team.
“The coach told me not to go into the team like a fan, be your own man, earn your own position and respect in the team, and don’t just look up to the other players as people who are bigger than you. Every time you get onto the field you get more and more confidence. Now my team-mates are also my good friends.”
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Saul Niguez Age 22 Club Atletico Country Spain Controversially left out of La Roja’s Euro 2016 squad, the midfielder is a vital cog for Diego Simeone, even if form was better last season.
Gabriel Jesus Age 19 Club Man City Country Brazil Key for Brazil, won the league with Palmeiras and took England by storm in his opening matches for the Blues. “In 2005, THE CLUB WAS ALMOST BROKE – WE’VE MADE €60m FROM OUR YOUNG PLAYERS SINCE”
“IT’S NICE TO BE COMPARED TO SERGIO BUSQUETS, BECAUSE HE IS ONE OF MY IDOLS”
Julian Weigl is another who cannot quite believe how well things have gone since he joined Dortmund – recruited from 1860 Munich as one of Tuchel’s first signings 18 months ago. Now the 21-year-old is as crucial as anyone to how BVB play, a fixture in the holding midfield role ever since he arrived. He has four international caps for Germany too, and was part of Joachim Löw’s Euro 2016 squad.
“It’s a dream how my career has gone so far,” Weigl admits. “When I came here I never thought it would go like this. I was very happy that a club like Borussia Dortmund wanted to sign me and I just wanted to learn and get some games. Last season I played 52 matches, I would have been pretty happy if it had been 10.
“In 2015, I played in the second division. We were in the relegation play-off to drop down to the third division, and then one year later I played for the German national team. I didn’t get a chance to play at the Euros. However, it was still a good experience to train with the guys, to talk to Bastian Schweinsteiger and to learn from all of the big players.”
And Weigl even got to greet the Pope before Germany’s recent international in Milan, when remarkably the entire squad resisted the temptation to talk about the 2014 World Cup Final to His Holiness, a staunch Argentina football supporter. “No, nobody did, but it would have been funny!” Weigl laughs, “but it was a really nice experience. We were in Vatican City, and when I got to give him my hand and then look him in the eyes, I will never forget that.”
Weigl is viewed as one of the best young players on the continent and his performances have resulted in comparisons with Sergio Busquets from his BVB colleague Marc Bartra,
the former Barcelona centre-back. “That was really nice of Marc, because Busquets is one of my idols,” he says. “I’m happy when some people say I have a big future so I want to show them that they’re right. I have to prove it in every game.”
Weigl (above) was made captain of 1860 Munich when at just 18, and while he was a little ill-at-ease about it at first, he feels the experience has helped him in the long run.
“It was a big honour but also a difficult situation at such a young age,” he explains. “Our goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly was 38 and if you’re 18 you can’t tell him what to do. You have to speak, you have to look at every player in the team, you have to make sure the atmosphere is nice inside the dressing room, you have to talk to the newspapers after training. If you want to be a good captain, then you need a lot of experience. At 18 it’s too early. But I learned from it – it showed me all of the different things that you must think about in football.”
Like Pulisic, Weigl also recently signed a new contract after links to Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
“I decided to stay here for more seasons because I feel that I am important for the club and the coach,” he says. “Here I know I have the chance to play many more matches and get a lot of experience from them – and the fans are all incredible, too.”
The chance to play at the Westfalenstadion – in front of the highest average crowds in Europe, and in front of the 25,000-capacity Yellow Wall – is undoubtedly another factor that draws players to Dortmund.
“When we get to play in front of the Yellow Wall, it’s just incredible,” Portuguese left-back Raphael Guerreiro says. “When we win matches and see it all from the pitch, it’s extraordinary.”
Guerreiro has parked himself on a sofa alongside Dembele to speak to FFT. Their friendship pre-dates their summer arrival at Dortmund, beginning with a conversation after a Ligue 1 game last term when they spoke about their future plans and realised that they were both attracting interest from the exact same club.
“He was playing for Lorient and I was playing for Rennes, and we spoke after the match,” says Dembele (left). “We said it would be great to be at the same club next season and we stayed in touch,” Guerreiro adds. “It wasn’t 100 per cent certain at the time because you never know what the future will bring, but now we are together at the same club and we’re happy about that.”
Dembele’s move came despite interest from the Premier League champions Leicester, and despite a last-gasp attempt from Jurgen Klopp to try to persuade him to join Liverpool.
“I saw Klopp in Paris but I told him I had made up my mind to sign for Dortmund,” Dembele says. “I told Claudio Ranieri the same thing.”
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Andrea Belotti Age 23 Club Torino Country Italy Netted 28 goals during 2016 and became one of the leading strikers in Serie A. Compared to Andriy Shevchenko.
Marco Asensio Age 21 Club Real Madrid Country Spain One of the top Spanish stars of his generation, now trying to break into Zinedine Zidane’s team. “I LEARNED A LOT AS CAPTAIN. OUR GOALKEEPER WAS 38. IF YOU’RE 18 YOU CAN’T TELL HIM WHAT TO DO”
Dembele had been previously quoted in his homeland appearing to suggest that Ranieri’s lack of French had been one of the factors in his decision-making; a surprising claim, given that Thomas Tuchel isn’t renowned for fluent français either. But even the player himself looks puzzled when asked about that quote.
“No, Ranieri speaks French from when he coached Monaco,” Dembele clarifies. “I made the decision a long time ago, so going to Leicester was out of the question.”
Guerreiro, meanwhile, turned down Barça – a year after also deciding not to join PSG.
“With Barcelona, I’d already made the decision to come to Dortmund, so I had to politely decline their offer and I think they completely understood,” he says. “PSG had come in for me a year earlier, but I wanted to stay at Lorient to have a better chance of playing at the Euros.”
In the end, he didn’t just play at the Euros – he won the Euros. Up until his move to BVB, Guerreiro had spent his whole life in France, graduating from the prestigious Clairefontaine academy – but he opted to represent Portugal, the country of his dad. He didn’t speak much of the Portuguese language when he first linked up with the national setup, but he certainly hasn’t come to regret his choice. “I was born in France but Portugal just felt more like my country,” Guerreiro explains. “It was incredible to win the tournament. To win a trophy with your country is amazing. A few years ago that was unthinkable. “The final was really emotional. I grew up very close to the Stade de France and often passed by it. I hit the crossbar during the final and it would have been amazing to score, but what mattered most was winning the game. I was very moved to lift up the trophy.” Guerreiro perhaps wasn’t known by many before Euro 2016, but he was named in the overall team of the tournament and hailed as man of the match in the final by Thierry Henry. Dortmund had done their homework, snapping him up a few weeks earlier for £9.5m. Now he could be worth in excess of £20m. The 23-year-old has shown versatility with BVB too, often operating in the centre of midfield after shining at left-back at the Euros. Dembele – once likened to a young Cristiano Ronaldo and heralded as a future Ballon d’or contender by Rennes sporting director Mikael Silvestre – has made decent progress on the international stage, too. Weeks after Euro 2016, the forward made his France debut. “I think it went really well,” Dembele says.
“I’m going to try to keep playing well for my club so that I can break into the squad and stay in the France team.”
Guerreiro and Dembele (together, left) may play for two of the best national teams in the world, but that does not mean that they and Dortmund’s other young stars can’t have fun away from the field.
“We all often meet up for meals, and we will also send each other Snapchats and things like that, too,” Dembele reveals. “We play lots of FIFA together as well but some of us are much better than others!” Guerreiro laughs, looking at his team-mate.
“WE CAN WIN TITLES WITH THIS YOUNG TEAM”
The latest to join that young group is Alexander Isak, recruited from Swedish club AIK for around £8.5m during the transfer window and now ready to talk to FFT. We’re the first media organisation to speak to the pacy striker since he moved to Dortmund, but we have been warned that he’s shy. That he certainly is – although perhaps it’s no surprise, given that he’s a 17-year-old adapting to life at a new club and the fact he’s now being talked about all around Europe. He’s so young that Dortmund needed special approval from FIFA to register him, after he chose BVB ahead of Real Madrid.
Prior to that, he’d scored 13 goals in his solitary season in the first team at AIK, before becoming the Swedish national team’s youngest ever goalscorer in January, against Slovakia. It’s earned him the tag of ‘the new Zlatan Ibrahimovic’, unsurprisingly.
“People say things like that but I’m myself and I’m not trying to be someone else,” says Isak, who’s yet to make his debut for Dortmund when FFT meets him. “I’ve been here for two weeks now and it feels good. I’m still trying to get settled in with a new team and a new city, but all of the people have helped a lot.”
Why Dortmund rather than Madrid? “Many young players have got the chance here and it felt better for me – it felt like the right choice,” he explains. “You know it’s a good club to develop as a young player, as lots of them are actually in the team.
“Last season I played my first game in the first team for my club in Sweden, and after that I played almost every game and it went really well. Then I played with the national team and managed to score for them. I feel like this is a big opportunity for me now. If I work and do everything right, there’s a chance to play.”
Asked whether he expected to make such progress so young, you get a glimpse, amid the shyness, of the underlying confidence that has helped him to get this far already.
“Did I expect it? No, but I’m not surprised,” he says. “I want to play here and I am waiting for my chance, and I’ll take it when it comes.”
Isak was born in 1999, two years after Lars Ricken’s delicious chip won the Champions League in Munich’s Olympic Stadium, only 16 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
“Often only the parents know me now!” laughs Ricken, who spent 15 years in Dortmund’s first-team squad having emerged from the youth ranks. “But the under-12s told me recently, ‘Oh your goal was so great’, because they had watched it on Youtube! My goal was 20 years ago. We need some new heroes.”
Many of Dortmund’s young players get their first real taste of the Signal Iduna Park experience as ball boys during their early teens. Eighteen-year-old Felix Passlack, Germany’s youngest-ever scorer in the Champions League when he netted in Dortmund’s remarkable 8-4 group-stage win over Legia Warsaw in November, volunteered to be a ball boy again even after getting his first experience training with the first-team squad two years ago.
Jurgen Klopp, the coach who’d first invited the teenager to join Dortmund’s senior setup at the beginning of his last campaign in charge, couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Passlack fulfilling ball boy duties pitchside. “Felix threw the ball back and Klopp said, ‘What are you doing?’” Ricken explains. “Felix said, ‘I’m a ball boy!’”
There’s already a buzz at Dortmund’s training ground about the next kid they believe could break into the first team. “Jacob Bruun Larsen has already played once in the German Cup and he’s such a great player,” Ricken reveals. FFT sees evidence of that when we watch an under-19s encounter against Borussia Monchengladbach during our visit – Dortmund are the reigning German champions in that particular age group, and each and every player politely shakes us by the hand to greet us before kick-off.
In the second half, Bruun Larsen cuts inside and scores a brilliant goal, hammering the ball into the top corner from 30 yards. Wearing the No.7 jersey, there is more than a flash of the Cristiano Ronaldo about the 18-year-old Danish wideman.
With so many young players in the first team, and others waiting in the wings, it would be no surprise if Borussia Dortmund continued to grow stronger in the years to come.
“We have a really good future,” Julian Weigl insists. “We have so many good young players who are now in their first season in the Bundesliga. Once we’ve been together for a year or two, they’ll get the experience I got last season and we will grow quickly and have a really strong team. I think we can win some titles with this team.”
If they do, you can be sure they’ll have plenty of fun along the way.
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