Why Mats Hummels Is the 1 Dortmund Player Bayern Munich Would Love to Have

A few years ago, Bayern Munich would have loved to have brought in half the Borussia Dortmund first team.

At the time, BVB had several coveted world-class talents, and there were a number of areas where the German record champions could have used some extra depth.

As it happened, Bayern signed Mario Gotze in the summer of 2013, and Robert Lewandowski followed a year later. Despite widespread media reports ever since 2012 linking Marco Reus with a move to Munich, however, the Germany international has not transferred to the Allianz Arena club.

But now he, as well as Ilkay Gundogan, really are not necessary additions to a Bayern squad that has plenty of depth in the forward and central midfield positions.

The last Dortmund player Bayern could greatly benefit from signing is Mats Hummels, a natural center-back who has the skill to play defense in a system suitable to Pep Guardiola.

During his tenure at Bayern, Guardiola has shifted the characteristics of his team in the direction of having a full lineup of midfielders. Pure strikers such as Mario Gomez and Mario Mandzukic have been sold, replaced by a “false nine” tactic or the much more ball-savvy Robert Lewandowski.

Defenders such as Philipp Lahm and David Alaba have been moved into midfield from time to time, and the only center-back who has proved to be a full-time starter (Jerome Boateng) is the one who is comfortably the best on the ball.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Hummels is one of the few players in world football who has truly world-class defensive qualities and, at the same time, ability with the ball at his feet that is sufficient for Guardiola's tactics.

Most everyone else either is too much of a liability in possession to play in such an advanced position as Guardiola's defense requires or lacks enough physicality or ball-winning ability to defend when opponents race forward to attack the space between the back line and goalkeeper.

Uniting Hummels and Boateng would give Bayern the same center-back and goalkeeper combination that won the 2014 World Cup with Germany, a tried-and-true pair that would be reliable for years to come.

At the same time, bringing in Hummels would also work towards restoring Bayern's "homegrown" and German identity.

Following the sales of Toni Kroos and Bastian Schweinsteiger, and the signing of foreign stars like Lewandowski, Thiago Alcantara, Douglas Costa and Arturo Vidal, Bayern have come under fire from some fans for decreasing their German character at a time in which Germany has emerged as the world's strongest national team.

A Bayern youth player from the age of six until 20, Hummels came through the academy as his father, Hermann, worked as a youth coordinator between 1995 and 2012. Given his mid-December birthday, young Mats suffered under the Relative Age Effect and wasn't as well regarded in youth football as he deserved.

He was benched for most of the German under-21s' European Championship-winning campaign in 2009, the same summer he was sold to Dortmund after spending a year on loan at the Signal-Iduna Park.

After reaching a stage in his development in which being the majority of a year younger than many of his opponents was not a liability, Hummels emerged as a true star. But he may well never again ply his trade at the Allianz Arena.

Not long after Bayern fired his father to bring Stephan Beckenbauer (the son of club and national icon, Franz) into their academy management, Hummels famously told Bild (via Goal): "I don't give a damn about Bayern. I have completely lost the link with the club."

The unfortunate combination of underestimating Hummels' talent in his youth and releasing his father seems to have made Mats an unlikely acquisition for Bayern.

It's a shame for the German giants given how well he could fit into the team and the symbol he could be as a homegrown star and leader both for club and country.

In Munich, he may always be known as "the one that got away."

@Mr_Bundesliga