€130.09m profit since 2012/13 but heading back to the Champions League final – The Borussia Dortmund model

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Heading to Wembley 

Borussia Dortmund might just be the best run club in Europe. Niclas Füllkrug’s goal gave the Germans a 1-0 lead in their Champions League semi-final first leg against PSG, whilst Jadon Sancho was the star of the show on that night. Then it was a header from 35-year-old veteran Mats Hummels that sealed it in Paris and sent Dortmund back to the final with a 2-0 aggregate win. European football could now be in line to see a repeat of the exact same teams that faced off last time the Champions League final was hosted at the iconic Wembley stadium. In 2013, Bayern Munich beat Dortmund 2-1 in London thanks to a brace from Arjen Robben. Bayern travel to Real Madrid this Wednesday with the first leg at the Allianz Arena finishing 2-2 last week. 

Since that last final just over a decade ago, despite seeing so many of their best players depart each summer, Dortmund are continuing to compete with the elite. In the last five seasons alone Dortmund have sold Sancho, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham for significantly higher transfer fees than they paid for those stars. Nevertheless, they are in another Champions League final, despite having a squad market value (€464 million) less than half of that of PSG’s (€1.02 billion). The club’s ability to pluck out some of the finest young talent in world football and eventually turn them around for a huge profit has allowed the German club to continue to rub shoulders with the very best at the top. An incredible achievement.

When assessing the net spends of this season’s four Champions League semi-finalists, as can be seen above, Dortmund are way out on top. The German side actually have a positive number with a net gain of €130.09 million. Meanwhile, Real Madrid have recorded a loss of -€305.15m and Bayern Munich have a loss of -€440.90m. As for Dortmund’s semi-final opponents PSG – the French club have recorded an astronomical loss of -€1.20 billion. Dortmund have paid a very different price than their counterparts to get to this stage. And have now even gone one step further.

On the list of clubs with the highest net spends in that period worldwide, Dortmund actually come in 220th on that list with their financial gain in that timeframe. The clubs biggest sales in that period have been the following: Ousmane Dembélé to Barcelona for €135m, Bellingham to Real Madrid for €103m, Sancho to Manchester United for €85m, Christian Pulisic to Chelsea for €64m, and Haaland to Manchester City for €60m. The only player on that list who now has a higher market value than the fee Dortmund sold him for is Haaland, with the Norwegian now boasting a market value of €180m.

The most Dortmund have paid for a player in that period was the signing of Dembélé from Rennes in 2017, before making over €100m in profit on the Frenchmen alone. Whilst Premier League clubs have been chucking crazy amounts of money around in recent years, it has been a more considered approach from Dortmund. If the German club are able to go all the way in the Champions League this season, it will be one of the great underdog stories in Europe’s top club competition. Making it to the final alone is astonishing.