BVB is looking for a replacement for Erling Haaland after moving to Manchester City

Sebastian Kehl, the designated successor to the outgoing sports director Michael Zorc at the Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, is relaxed about the departure of the Norwegian top scorer Erling Haaland. It will be difficult to replace Haaland because “we can’t buy this quality at this level,” said Kehl on the TV channel “Sky”: “But we’ve always managed to find good solutions in the past , also to replace a Robert Lewandowski. I’m very confident that we can do that in the summer.”

Dortmund’s personnel planning has not yet been completed with the commitment of national player Karim Adeyemi, Kehl confirmed to Sky. Adeyemi is “with his qualities someone who will enrich us significantly. But the power and physicality that we will lose through Erling Haaland – we are currently thinking about whether we can compensate for that in another way.

The 21-year-old Haaland came to BVB from Salzburg in January 2020 and is now moving to Manchester City. In his first season in Dortmund he scored 41 goals in 41 competitive games and was the top scorer in the Champions League. He had signed with BVB for four and a half years until mid-2024.

Dortmund’s veteran Marcel Schmelzer, on the other hand, ended his football career. The former national player will retire after this season, as the 34-year-old said in a video on Instagram on Thursday. “Unfortunately, injuries have thrown me back again and again in the last two years. In this context, I would like to thank BVB for allowing me to complete my rehab here again. I don’t know what’s coming yet. But I’m looking forward to the challenges,” said Schmelzer, who will say goodbye to the season finale against Hertha BSC on Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).

Schmelzer switched to the Dortmund U-19 team in 2005 from the youth team at 1. FC Magdeburg. The central defender made 367 competitive appearances for Borussia and has won two German championships and three cups with BVB since 2008. In 2009 he won European Championship gold with the U-21 national team. In November 2010 he made his debut in the German national team, for which he played a total of 16 international matches. Schmelzer last played for BVB on June 17, 2020.

BVB extended Schmelzer’s expiring contract last season so that the former captain could continue his rehabilitation in his usual environment after a serious knee injury. However, Schmelzer cannot play one last time for his club.

“He hasn’t been in team training for what feels like four months, which also has a few insurance-related issues,” explained coach Marco Rose. “As much as I would like it for myself and the fans, some things are just not feasible, and that’s the case with Schmelzer. He will be in the stadium – and hopefully not for the last time. It will definitely be very special.”

Dan-Axel Zagadou leaves BVB after the end of the season. The expiring contract of the 22-year-old Frenchman will not be extended, as the upcoming BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl confirmed to the “Ruhr News”. “We had a very open conversation with each other and came to the decision not to renew his contract,” said Kehl.

Defender Zagadou came from Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 but kept struggling with injury problems. In autumn 2020 he tore his outer ligament, in early 2021 a muscle fiber tear, followed by knee surgery the following autumn. At the beginning of 2022 he suffered another muscle fiber tear, which is why he was not available to the Westphalians until April. Zagadou has played all of the last five league games, but there is now a separation.

In central defense, BVB has strengthened prominently for the coming season with Nico Schlotterbeck (SC Freiburg) and Niklas Süle (FC Bayern Munich).

Despite the already secured second place, the club is ambitious in its last game of the season against Hertha. “There will be no gifts of any kind. It’s still about places in the Bundesliga,” said coach Rose before the duel with Berlin, who are in fifteenth place and threatened with relegation. In the event of a defeat in Dortmund and a win for Stuttgart, three points worse than Cologne, the team coached by Felix Magath would have to be relegated due to the worse goal difference.

Rose expects a “good and focused performance from his pros. Of course it’s important to set an example and fire everything out. We want to win our last home game.” The fact that well-deserved Dortmunders like sports director Zorc or Schmelzer are said goodbye before kick-off shouldn’t disturb the concentration of his team.

“These goodbyes will be special. But first and foremost it’s a point game – and not an unimportant one,” said Rose. Although convalescents Mateu Morey, Thomas Meunier and Mahmoud Dahoud returned to team training this week, they are not an option for the squad.