Ranking the Top 6 Teenagers to Have Played for Borussia Dortmund Since 2000
Borussia Dortmund have earned the reputation of being one of the best clubs to develop young talents in European football.
It's become a strategy for the club to include bright prospects in the squad, but one could argue that Dortmund were forced into their luck at the start of the millennium.
Winning the Bundesliga title in 2002 with a relatively old team filled with stars the club bought without actually having the money for them, the Black and Yellows were on the brink of financial collapse in 2005.
Dortmund's remarkable recovery over the last decade under chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke was only possible thanks to the club's selling of their most valuable players, who were mostly replaced by young ones often plucked directly from the club's academy.
The Black and Yellows were cash-strapped for years and had middling success under various managers until Jurgen Klopp arrived in 2008 and made a virtue of necessity, building a team that took the Bundesliga—and, later, Europe—by storm.
Dortmund haven't looked back since and still place an emphasis on integrating young players into their team. Just last season, 17-year-olds Felix Passlack and Christian Pulisic made their first steps in professional football at the Westfalenstadion.
Here, Bleacher Report ranks the top six teenagers to play for the club in this millennium, based on the entirety of their careers. Every player who was 19 or younger at the time of his debut qualified for this list.
6. Julian Weigl
1 of 6
Julian Weigl only played eight matches for Dortmund before turning 20 in September 2015, but he deserves his spot on the list nonetheless.
His meteoric rise from afterthought signing to key contributor in his first year at the club was nothing short of sensational.
Signed for a mere €2.5 million from 1860 Munich, most expected him to jump between the bench and the stands in Thomas Tuchel's first season as head coach, perhaps even getting some playing time for the club's under-23 outfit in the fourth division.
Weigl ended up appearing in 51 of the club's 56 matches across all competitions, playing more minutes than all but three of his team-mates.
Showing an astounding level of maturity and consistency, Weigl quickly proved to be a perfect fit for Tuchel's playing style, which prioritises ball retention and position play. Never flustered under pressure, Dortmund's No. 33 completed an incredible 92 per cent of his passes in the Bundesliga, per Squawka.
Despite his inexperience, he was clearly one of the club's best players of the season. According to a vote by his peers in sport magazine Kicker (link in German), Weigl was the Bundesliga's Shooting Star of the Year, ahead of impressive young performers such as Bayer Leverkusen's Julian Brandt, Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich or Manchester City's new winger Leroy Sane.
Weigl arguably had the best rookie season of any player on our list and could well rank much higher, should we recreate this list a few years from now.
5. Christoph Metzelder
2 of 6
The only player on our list to already call time on his career, Christoph Metzelder debuted at age 19 in August 2000. A versatile, modern defender, the tall German built formidable centre-back partnerships with veterans Jurgen Kohler and, later, Christian Worns.
A Germany international after only one season of top-flight football, he started 19 games at the FIFA World Cups in 2002 and 2006 and at Euro 2008.
The latter two tournaments weren't a given for Metzelder, who lost more than a year to an Achilles injury that kept him out between March 2003 and December 2004. Staying loyal to the club throughout its biggest financial troubles, the defender left for Real Madrid in 2007 but only appeared in 31 matches over three injury-riddled seasons for Los Blancos before joining the Black and Yellows' archrivals Schalke 04.
Metzelder's finest hour for Dortmund, incidentally, came in a match against the Royal Blues in his final season at the Westfalenstadion. With Schalke close to their first Bundesliga title since 1958, he assisted both goals in a 2-0 win in an unforgettable Revierderby that ultimately cost Schalke the championship.
4. Nuri Sahin
3 of 6
Nuri Sahin is the only player in the history of the Bundesliga to play at the tender age of 16. Debuting in a a match against VfL Wolfsburg on August 8, 2005, the Turkey international played two full seasons with the Black and Yellows and spent one year on loan with Feyenoord before turning 20.
A versatile player in his early days, Sahin became one of the best central midfielders in Europe under Klopp's guidance. He was arguably the most important player in the club's title-winning 2010/11 campaign, orchestrating the team's attack with surgical precision and scoring six goals himself.
Leaving Dortmund for Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid at the conclusion of the campaign, Sahin seemed destined for greatness. "It was impossible to say no to this club, and I look at the move as a jump forward in my career," he said, per UEFA.com. I would only have left Dortmund for a team capable of winning many titles, as is the case with Madrid.
Much like Metzelder, however, his time with Madrid was injury-riddled and ultimately disappointing, as Sahin played a grand total of 10 matches across all competitions with only two starts in La Liga.
An underwhelming loan spell at Liverpool was terminated early in January 2013, paving the way for a return to his boyhood club. Now 27, Sahin has never quite rekindled the magic of his first stint despite being a valuable squad member.
Injuries played a big factor in that, as he's not been able to stay healthy over the last two years, appearing in only 21 matches.
Sahin has had a solid career, but one can't shake the feeling that he should've achieved more to this point.
3. Neven Subotic
4 of 6
Neven Subotic was Dortmund's most important—and expensive, with a €4.5 million price tag—transfer in 2008, joining from Mainz 05, where he already had played under Klopp.
Building a centre-back partnership with fellow 19-year-old Mats Hummels the German yellow press dubbed "Kinderriegel" (kid wall), the Serbian took to the Bundesliga like a fish to water, scoring three goals from set pieces in his first four matches in the top flight for the Black and Yellows.
Especially in his early years, Subotic was a paragon of consistency—he missed his first games through injury in 2011. A better defender than his partner in central defence, he and Hummels complemented each other perfectly. Doing all the little things well, Subotic was an unspectacular but important part of Dortmund's title-winning campaigns.
He would remain a regular starter until a fateful match against Wolfsburg in November 2013, where he tore his anterior cruciate ligament. Even though he returned to his usual spot in defence, the Serbian never quite looked as convincing, especially athletically.
Back problems and later a thrombosis in his arm cost the 27-year-old much of last season, as Sokratis Papastathopoulos and converted midfielder Sven Bender passed him by on the depth chart.
Subotic was excused from the club's pre-season training earlier this summer to search for a new club and would have joined Middlesbrough FC had he passed his medical, per Anthony Vickers of Gazette Live. He had to undergo rib surgery, and "it looks like he will miss the rest of 2016," per the club's official website.
The Serbian is one of the biggest fan favourites on the team, as much for his hard work on the pitch as his amazing charitable efforts off it. The Neven Subotic Stiftung aims to provide access to clean water to people in need in Africa's poorest countries, and its namesake is more than a simple patron, spending his vacations onsite in Africa to help out.
His eventual departure will leave a big hole in the community and in the hearts of many fans.
2. Mario Gotze
5 of 6
The biggest prodigy on our list, Mario Gotze, was always tipped for greatness.
Debuting at the age of 17 against Mainz in November 2009, the versatile midfielder played in five matches during the campaign before bursting onto the scene in the title-winning 2010/11 campaign. Scoring six and assisting a whopping 15 goals, he played one of the finest seasons ever for an 18-year-old.
Playing all over the attack, Gotze's quickness and remarkable technical abilities showed why he was so highly rated at a young age. Though an irritation of the pubic bone cost him much of the second half of the following campaign, Gotze's development into one of Europe's best players didn't stop.
With two goals and eight assists, his performances were a major part of Dortmund's magical run in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League, and who knows what could've been had he not missed the final at Wembley against Bayern Munich with a muscle injury.
The Bavarians, of course, became his new club that summer, after Gotze executed a release clause in April, much to the chagrin of Dortmund's officials and the entire fanbase.
Things didn't quite work out for the 24-year-old under Pep Guardiola, as numerous smaller injuries meant he never got into a rhythm with the Bavarian giants. That, of course, made his sensational return to Dortmund this summer possible.
Even though Gotze has much still to deliver given his generational talent, he's won the Bundesliga in five of six seasons at the senior level and etched his name into the history books as the scorer of the World Cup-winning goal in Brazil in 2014.
1. Mats Hummels
6 of 6
Mats Hummels joined Dortmund in the 2008 January transfer window on loan from Bayern, a deal made permanent 18 months later.
He came into a mid-table side under Thomas Doll that played some dreadful football but showed enough to be trusted next to Subotic once Klopp arrived in the summer.
It's easy to forget now, but the Serbian was rated more highly early in their time next to each other, thanks in large part to Hummels' injury-proneness, which he's more or less overcome over the years.
The Germany international quickly proved to be a natural leader, organising the defence from a young age. He turned out to be one of the best modern centre-backs in the world, with his passing from the back line making him a rare defender with playmaking abilities.
One of the few mainstays of the Klopp era to excel under Tuchel, Hummels' transfer back to boyhood club Bayern this summer arguably hurt the Black and Yellows more than the departures of Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
A proven world-class player in his prime, Hummels' loss on and off the field can't be underestimated, as he had become the face of the club after Klopp left. That he joined Bayern, of all clubs, added insult to injury.
He's come a long way since his early days as a 19-year-old loanee and has easily had the most impressive career of the many teenagers to come through Dortmund's ranks over the years.
All performance data and transfer information via Transfermarkt.de.
Lars Pollmann also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
