By once again directly qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, the club again has the opportunity to consolidate its standing as one of Europe's top teams and to once more share in the profits distributed for participating in the lucrative competition.
Borussia Dortmund's approach to its squad is one of continuity. Lucien Favre enters his third season as head coach of Borussia Dortmund, having steered the team to two second-place league finishes in a row. Head coach Lucien Favre, sporting director Michael Zorc, Sebastian Kehl as Head of the Professional Squad and Matthias Sammer as an external advisor further strengthened their partnership, working together more closely to identify additional areas for improvement and change. The squad continued to grow together as a team and achieved greater balance, especially in the second half of the 2019/2020 season. This was helped in part by winter signings Emre Can and Erling Braut Haaland, who had no problems integrating into the team and immediately had a positive impact on their teammates. For the coming season, Borussia Dortmund signed Thomas Meunier, an experienced defender who is expected to help bring the young squad to the next level with his maturity, and Jude Bellingham, a young, up-and-coming highly-talented player with enormous potential who is expected to steadily further his development at Borussia Dortmund. The healthy mix of grit, leadership and young ambition as well as consistency with regard to the management of the squad is expected to help the team unlock its full potential and achieve the greatest possible success on the pitch.
Borussia Dortmund has an excellent team, a fact that is not lost on other top European clubs. Accordingly, there is always the possibility of lucrative transfers.
Borussia Dortmund sees further potential in its youth setup, where it lays the foundation for its sporting success. To this end, the club added new offices for the sports management team at the Brackel training ground. This investment will help to further consolidate all the areas under the direction of the Sports department. Borussia Dortmund hopes the direct proximity to the training ground will help it work with greater efficiency and purpose and further optimise its pipeline of talented youngsters for the senior team. In the past season, Giovanni Reyna, another one of the club's youth standouts, made the jump to the senior side and helped the team with his youthful exuberance. Other talented youngsters are also set to make the senior team.
Borussia Dortmund maintains close and longstanding partnerships with its sponsors. During times of crises, this continuity was also a reflection of the close and trusting relationships. These good relationships built on trust and the solidarity displayed during crises also provide planning security. Borussia Dortmund also believes it has good opportunities to adequately replace sponsoring agreements that are set to expire by leveraging its appeal to sign lucrative new contracts.
Since personal contact has been severely restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic, communicating digitally with fans is more important than ever. New digital formats were and will be created for this reason. This increased focus on digital communications affords us the opportunity to strengthen the bonds our fans have with the club despite not being able to attend matches, and to grow Borussia Dortmund's fan base.