Borussia Dortmund's End of 2014/15 Season Awards

It's been quite a season for Borussia Dortmund. Bundesliga humiliation, Champions League heartbreak and ultimately a DFB Pokal run that saw the club fall at the final hurdle. The 2014/15 campaign hasn't been kind on Jurgen Klopp or his battered squad. 

Yet the summer has arrived, and although Klopp has made plans for pastures new, Thomas Tuchel will step in to take his place and bring a renewed sense of hope. 

But before talk of next season's possibilities, let's take a moment to appreciate the season that was. Here are the Dortmund end of season awards. 

Best Player

Markus Schreiber/Associated Press

Although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang may not be the best player at Dortmund right now, he was certainly the best performing player at the club during the 2014/15 campaign. 

Perhaps he's not quite the striker that Dortmund allowed to leave for Bayern Munich last summer, but in Aubameyang, the Black and Yellows certainly have a striker who gives his all and, more importantly, gets goals. 

With 25 goals and 11 assists in all competitions this season, according to Transfermarkt, the Gabon forward has reached a level for the club that few others have managed. 

Best Signing

Michael Probst/Associated Press

This category is a bit of an odd one for Dortmund. The club spent just shy of £60million over the course of the 2014/15 season, and by and large, they have received very little in return. 

In a manner that sums up the poor form of each acquisition by the club in the past 12 months, it has been none other than Shinji Kagawa—a player who returned to the club with his tail between his legs after a poor stint at Manchester United—who has done marginally better than all others. 

The Japanese international has had some very poor games since returning in January, but he has also had a handful of good games too. Which, in this category, seems to make all the difference. 

Worst Signing

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

In a similar sense to the previous slide, this category was very hard to pick a winner for—through completely different reasons. 

Ciro Immobile has struggled to adapt to German football, Kevin Kampl has offered very little since arriving in January and Matthias Ginter has been a bomb scare in defence for Dortmund at times this season. Yet nobody has been quite as bad as Adrian Ramos. 

The Colombian forward arrived in the summer as the answer to a very important question: Who can replace Robert Lewandowski? Sure, he may not be as distinguished or proven as the Polish international, but he had the physique and goal record in the Bundesliga to at least match him. 

That hasn't happened at all. Instead we've seen the striker slump on the bench for the vast majority of the season, making just a handful of cameo appearances. 

A waste of talent and money. 

Best Individual Performance

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

The best individual performance from a Dortmund player this season came in a game that would ultimately turn the club's season completely around. 

In a league clash with Freiburg in February we found a Dortmund side that hadn't won a match in their last five. Then along came Aubameyang with a goal and an assist to push his side along to a 3-0 win, and suddenly everything changed. 

Two wins in their last 16 games before that match turned into five wins and two draws in their next seven, as Klopp's side made their late charge for seventh place. All because of this game and what this forward offered on the day. 

Most Improved Player

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

Again, this was a category that proved rather difficult to distinguish a winner. Many of Dortmund's players, like the club in general, have struggled to really add to their game this season amid all of the drama that has followed them of late. 

One player who has perhaps added to his role at the club has been central midfielder Nuri Sahin. Although the Turkey international is no stranger to the club or its fans, he has taken his time to slowly return to the form he showed before he left for Real Madrid. 

Yet this season has seen more and more glimpses of the deep-lying playmaker at his finest. Pulling the strings and running this attacking team from a distance is what Sahin does best, and at times we've seen him do that flawlessly. 

Biggest Disappointment

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Although it would take some doing to take this title from Ramos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan must surely go down as one of the biggest disappointments in Dortmund's season. 

The ludicrously expensive signing still hasn't really offered anything like the form that first brought him to the club's attention, and with just three Bundesliga goals to his name in the last campaign, we can be assured that it'll be another year to forget for the Armenian international. 

So much is expected of this attacking midfielder, and as of yet he hasn't quite reached those expectations. 

Best Team Performance

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

In a season full of lows, one great high for Dortmund fans was the win over Bayern in the DFB Pokal semi-finals in April. Aside from the actual result, there was something else that filled fans' hearts with delight: the performance. 

For perhaps the first time on German soil throughout the season, Dortmund had looked like the champions of old. Klopp's old gladiators. A team that would regularly show up and ruffle Bayern's feathers and bully them into submission. 

It was a game in which everyone played their role perfectly, and for at least 120 minutes, Dortmund's famous Black and Yellow fans were transported back to a world they still long for.