5 Players Whose Careers Went Backward After Leaving Borussia Dortmund

Whether the fans like it or not, Borussia Dortmund are considered a selling club. A spell with the Black and Yellows represents a stepping stone for most players, not the peak of their careers.

Just look at Robert Lewandowski. He left the club as one of Europe's finest attackers but only now, after impressing from the day he first put on a Bayern Munich shirt in 2014, is he considered truly world-class.

For some players, however, their time at Signal Iduna Park was the pinnacle of their career. For various reasons, they never quite reached the heights they hit at Dortmund elsewhere.

Here B/R picks five of those players, presented in chronological order of their departures.

Note that players who left Dortmund recently won't be included since the jury is still out on their careers in the bigger picture (looking at you, Ciro Immobile).

Also, as much as a vast majority of fans would like to read his name on this list, Mario Gotze won't appear here, either. His time at Bayern so far might not have gone the way he would've hoped, but saying his career has gone backward is too much of a stretch.

Marcio Amoroso

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Amoroso was a great goalscorer but also a difficult character.

Brazilian striker Marcio Amoroso was Dortmund's record signing until the club brought in Henrikh Mkhitaryan for €27.5 million from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013. In 2001, The Black and Yellows paid €25.5 million for then-26-year-old who had done reasonably well for Parma in Serie A.

It seemed to work out brilliantly, as Amoroso's 18 goals led the team to their first Bundesliga title since 1996.

After his first season at the Westfalenstadion, however, things fell apart. Head coach Matthias Sammer and Amoroso didn't get along. The Brazil international missed a lot of games with injuries and preferred treatment in his homeland over staying in Dortmund.

After scoring four goals in four appearances in the 2003/04 season, Amoroso picked up another knock, went to Brazil and refused to returned to Germany. The colourful striker went as far as claiming the club tried to blackmail him, per Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The saga ended with a mutually agreed contract termination in 2004.

Amoroso then bounced around, playing for Malaga, Sao Paulo, AC Milan, Corinthians, Gremio, Aris Thessaloniki and Guarani before hanging up his boots in 2009. He appeared in less than 50 games in those five years, and the number of clubs he played for (or didn't play) tells you all you need to know.

Ewerthon

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Ewerthon scored the decisive goal that made Dortmund Bundesliga champions but didn't live up to that later in his career.

Another Brazilian, Ewerthon played alongside Amoroso in Dortmund's 4-3-3 in the early '00s. 

He joined the Black and Yellows from Corinthians in September of the 2001/02 season—yes, transfers during the first half of the season were possible back then. Then 20 years of age, Ewerthon was a great hit in his first season at the club, scoring 10 goals. Among them was the one that decided the title race for Dortmund in a match against Werder Bremen.

Unlike Amoroso, Ewerthon played well beyond that first year at the club, finding the net another 37 times in three more Bundesliga seasons.

Dortmund had to sell him during the financial crisis that almost saw the club go into administration, and Ewerthon joined Real Zaragoza in 2005.

After two rather disappointing seasons, his club were relegated to Segunda Division and Ewerthon returned to the Bundesliga on loan at VfB Stuttgart, but he never reached the heights he hit at Dortmund. 

Like his aforementioned compatriot, he bounced around, playing in Russia and Qatar before returning to Brazil, where he retired aged just 32 in 2014.

David Odonkor

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David Odonkor assisted the goal that ignited Germany during their home World Cup in 2006.

To this day, the sale of David Odonkor for €6.5 million is widely regarded as sporting director Michael Zorc's best piece of business. The only player on our list who came through Dortmund's academy, Odonkor was a fairly limited winger.

Until Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came along, Odonkor was probably the fastest player to have played on the Westfalenstadion pitch. The problem was speed was his only real quality.

It was nothing short of sensational that Jurgen Klinsmann included the then-22-year-old in Germany's squad for the 2006 World Cup; Odonkor was uncapped and had not managed a single goal or assist in the second half of the 2005/06 Bundesliga campaign.

His assist for Oliver Neuville's late winner in the second match of the group stage against Poland in Dortmund suddenly had him on everyone's lips.

Real Betis came calling, and Dortmund pounced on their generous offer.

Because of a barrage of injuries, Odonkor appeared in only 52 games in five years with the Andalusians. After unsuccessful attempts to reignite his career at Alemannia Aachen and at Ukrainian club Hoverla Uzhhorod, he hung up his boots in 2013 aged just 29. 

Odonkor last made headlines for winning the German version of Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, per Die Welt.

Lucas Barrios

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Lucas Barrios won three trophies with Dortmund and seems to have turned his career around again.

We mentioned Robert Lewandowski in the introduction to this list, and the man the Pole replaced features here: Lucas Barrios. 

Barrios came to Dortmund in 2009 and played exceptionally well for the Black and Yellows.

Scoring 49 games in 102 appearances across competitions, the Paraguay international played a major role in 2011, when the club won its first Bundesliga title since the aforementioned financial crisis. 

In that summer, he suffered a muscle injury while on duty at the Copa America and lost his spot to Lewandowski. Relegated to a back-up role behind a younger—and frankly, better—player, Barrios left the club following their second successive Bundesliga title in 2012.

He went to China's Guangzhou Evergrande, where he played under legendary Italian coach Marcello Lippi. La Pantera, as he's called in South America, wasn't happy in China, however, and terminated his contract in 2013 after claiming the club refused to pay him, per German magazine Kicker (h/t Spox.com).

Barrios then played at Spartak Moscow and Montpellier before going back to South America, where he now plies his trade at Palmeiras.

Aged 31, Barrios still gets it done, as his three goals during last year's Copa America show. It seems as though his post-Dortmund odyssey might have a happy ending after all.

Felipe Santana

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Felipe Santana was a fan favourite during his time at Dortmund but hasn't really enjoyed his time elsewhere.

The third Brazilian on this list, Felipe Santana came to Dortmund in the summer of 2008. He had a nice career with the Black and Yellows but never really broke through in central defence. The pairing of Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic worked too well for him to capture a regular starting spot.

Santana still became a fan favourite at the Westfalenstadion, and he will always be remembered for scoring the winner in the dramatic quarter-final victory over Malaga in the club's amazing 2012/13 Champions League run.

That is why no one took offence at his decision to join Dortmund's archrivals Schalke 04 after five years at the club. The then-27-year-old hoped to make it to the World Cup 2014 in his home country and left Dortmund to get more playing time.

However, his stint with the Royal Blues didn't go as planned, and Tele, as fans lovingly called him at Dortmund, never became a regular starter. He spent half a season on loan at Olympiakos before leaving Schalke on a free transfer for Kuban Krasnodar earlier this year.

All transfer information and performance data via Transfermarkt.

Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.