When Nils Ole Book was appointed as the new Sporting Director of Borussia Dortmund, expectations were high. After what seemed like some disappointing decisions by predecessor Sebastian Kehl, Book was regarded as someone who would add freshness to how BVB conducts business.
So far, there seems to be a pattern in how the Black and Yellows are approaching the transfer market. Rather than signing older Bundesliga-proven players as they have done in the past, Dortmund are signing young talents that can bring new energy to the team. Players like Justin Lerma, Takato Yamamoto, and Joane Gadou are examples and have all made impressive debuts for Dortmund.
Book has since secured the signing of 18-year-old playmaker Konstantinos Karetsas, who is believed to be one of the brightest young talents on the continent, from Belgian outfit Genk.
All of this shows just how much Borussia Dortmund is banking on young talent to transform the team following the departures of Niklas Süle, Pascal Groß, Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi. Despite some complaints regarding a lack of experience, this type of approach is what made the club successful in the past. Dortmund won the 2010/11 Bundesliga title with the youngest average squad in the league’s history and repeated that success the following year with a DFB Pokal trophy to add to the league triumph.
During the summer of 2016, BVB lost three key players. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who had 23 goals and 32 assists in all competitions the following season, went to Manchester United while İlkay Gündoğan became Pep Guardiola’s first signing at Manchester City and club captain Mats Hummels went to Bayern Munich.
The departures left in what seemed to be an impossible task for the BVB hierarchy. What they decided to do here was to sign young talent to replace those who left. The club went on to sign Ousmane Dembélé, Emre Mor, Mikel Merino, and Raphaël Guerreiro. Except for Mor, who went on to have a difficult career, the rest of the signings proved to be a masterstroke. Dembele shone under Thomas Tuchel, helping BVB win the DFB Pokal that season – their first trophy after five years.
In the following years, it has always been the young talents that managed to make a difference at Dortmund. From Jadon Sancho to Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland, the young talents have seamlessly assimilated into the squad and managed to grab the headlines with their performances.
BVB is a club that nurtures talent and brings the best out of young players and, reluctant to pay a hefty fee in the inflated transfer market for average players whose impact might not be proportional to the money spent on them, Book seems to be ushering in a new era of smart and low-risk business.
