Opportunities

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 creating new momentum and structures in its personnel choices. Niko Kovač became Borussia Dortmund’s head coach on 2 February 2025 and signed a contract until 30 June 2026 following the club’s dismissal of Nuri Sahin as head coach. Niko Kovač’s assistant coaches are Robert Kovač, who has previously worked alongside Niko Kovač as assistant coach for numerous clubs and also played for Borussia Dortmund in the past, and Filip Tapalović, who has a wealth of international experience across various continents from his time as a player and a coach. On 1 July 2025, Borussia Dortmund also promoted the Youth Academy’s Head of Strategy and Development, Paul Schaffran, to Director of the Youth Academy. The position of Youth Academy Director had been vacant since the former director Lars Ricken was promoted to Managing Director for Sport in May 2024. In recent years, Paul Schaffran was a driving force behind the introduction of innovative concepts at the Youth Academy, such as bio-banding – the method of grouping players based on their physical development rather than their age group. He will also work with Thomas Broich and Mathias Schiele (“coach for individual top talents”). Borussia Dortmund firmly believes that this team is primed to optimally promote its young talents and prepare them in the best possible way for the challenges of professional football.

Borussia Dortmund finished the past season in fourth place in the Bundesliga with 57 points, once again qualifying directly for the UEFA Champions League. Given that Borussia Dortmund was ten points behind the Champions League places after match day 27, Niko Kovač’s coaching performance deserves special recognition in this context. The team only reached the second round of the DFB Cup. The team put in its strongest performances in the UEFA Champions League, particularly in the knockout round, impressing fans and pundits alike with great football to reach the quarter-finals where they were eliminated by FC Barcelona. This and the impressive final push at the end of the Bundesliga season demonstrate the squad’s enormous potential. The job of the coaching staff is to make further adjustments so as to unlock that potential as much as possible over the course of the entire season and across all competitions and to get the team to play an attractive and successful style of football. The long-term focus at the level of sporting management offers Borussia Dortmund a solid basis for planning and gives those with sporting responsibility (in particular Managing Director of Sport Lars Ricken, Sporting Director Sebastian Kehl, and head coach Niko Kovač) the opportunity to keep building on the excellent and trusting relationships they already enjoy and to unlock the potential for improvement that is there to see. We are confident that this is the ideal team to lead Borussia Dortmund into the future.

Borussia Dortmund pursues a dual strategy when putting together its squad: Firstly, it targets young, hungry and versatile stand-out players whose market values show great potential, either from its own youth academy or from other youth academies in Germany or abroad. Secondly, it gives its squad structure by signing experienced, quality players who are mentally strong with leadership capabilities that the younger players can turn to and develop under. Borussia Dortmund has signed an exceptionally talented player in U21 England international Jobe Bellingham, who, despite his young age, possesses remarkable maturity and football IQ. He also fits perfectly with Borussia Dortmund’s philosophy of promoting young talent and giving them the opportunity to develop at the highest level. The healthy mix of youngsters and veterans in the squad as well as consistency in its management 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, such as the pending transfer of Jamie Gittens to Chelsea FC (see the ad hoc disclosure dated 3 July 2025).

Borussia Dortmund sees further potential in its youth setup, where it lays the foundation for its sporting success. To this end, the club has added new offices for the sports management team at the Dortmund-Brackel training ground in recent years. This investment helped 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. Furthermore, in financial year 2023/2024, Borussia Dortmund entered into a purchase agreement to expand the training ground in Dortmund-Brackel. This expansion will enable professional training facilities to be set up for Borussia Dortmund’s women’s teams. In addition, Borussia Dortmund is investing in the construction of the BVB Health World medical centre in walking distance of the Dortmund-Brackel training ground in cooperation with Essen University Hospital. The planned medical centre will cover an area of 7,400 square metres with 5,000 square metres of offices for sports medicine, orthopaedics, cardiology, and radiology. It will be specifically tailored to the needs of professional and recreational athletes as well as people with an active and health-conscious lifestyle, and will also be dedicated to research. A particular focus will be on combining sports medicine and artificial intelligence: the renowned Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (IKIM) at Essen University Hospital will play a key role in the development of the BVB Health World. The plan is to offer a comprehensive range of premium services combining diagnostics, prediction, prevention, acute treatment, and rehabilitation. Borussia Dortmund’s teams will also receive medical care at the BVB Health World – with the clear aim of setting new standards in sports medicine. The opening is currently scheduled for 2027 at the earliest. The aim is to further strengthen Dortmund-Brackel as a centre for sports and to promote a holistic approach going forward.

Borussia Dortmund has an array of young, top player and talents in the likes of Karim Adeyemi, Maximilian Beier, Jobe Bellingham, Daniel Svensson and Julien Duranville, who have either already established themselves in the senior team or are on their way to doing so. Borussia Dortmund signed Filippo Mané and Almugera Kabar, two youth players who rose through club’s youth teams, to the senior team. Borussia Dortmund also relies on a mix of continuity and transformation in its youth and U23 setups. Mike Tullberg, who previously coached the U19 team, will take over from Jan Zimmermann as the head coach of Borussia Dortmund’s U23 team from the 2025/2026 season on and in the process extended his contract with Borussia Dortmund until 30 June 2028. Mike Tullberg joined Borussia Dortmund in 2019 and won the Westphalia Cup three times and the league once (2022) with the U19 team, proving his ability to develop players individually along the way. During the 2024/2025 season, he served as the senior team’s interim head coach, leading the lads to two wins and a draw in the Bundesliga and Champions League before handing the sceptre over to Niko Kovač and rejoining the U19s. Felix Hirschnagl, who, in his previous coaching stints, always favoured bold, attacking football and thus is a perfect match for Borussia Dortmund’s philosophy of player development, will take over as new head coach of Borussia Dortmund’s U19 team in the 2025/2026 season.

Borussia Dortmund maintains close and longstanding partnerships with its sponsors. Borussia Dortmund’s long-term partnership with the global sports marketing agency SPORTFIVE Germany GmbH, its marketing partner since 1999, runs until 30 June 2031. The collaboration covers all areas of marketing, such as the acquisition of sponsors, the expansion of partnerships and the marketing of the hospitality areas at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Borussia Dortmund and SPORTFIVE Germany GmbH have set themselves ambitious national and international marketing growth targets for the coming years. In addition to its present focal areas, SPORTFIVE Germany GmbH will also be responsible for marketing women’s football and e-sports. Borussia Dortmund’s international marketing activities in the coming years will focus in particular on expanding its partnerships in the United States, which it has identified as a target market and where the team set off on a summer tour in July/August 2023 and where it opened a permanent representative office and formed BVB Americas Inc. in New York in March 2024. This will enable Borussia Dortmund to serve the American market in an even better, more targeted manner. For some time now, Borussia Dortmund has operated a football academy in the United States, which organises training camps in 18 cities throughout the country from its home base in Dallas, Texas.

Borussia Dortmund was one of two German clubs represented at the FIFA Club World Cup, which was held for the first time in the summer of 2025 in the new 32-team format. The tournament was held from 15 June to 13 July 2025 in the United States. From a reputation and brand perspective, the goal was to use BVB’s strong presence in the US and its digital visibility to teach Americans about Borussia Dortmund’s unique history. The aim was to step up engagement efforts with the general public to win them over customers and fans and with companies to gain future partners, and to further strengthen existing partnerships. This was also helped significantly by the team’s successful run to reach the quarter-finals. The United States is also co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup together with Canada and Mexico. In addition to having a presence on the American market, Borussia Dortmund continues to be active on the Asian market. Borussia Dortmund travelled to Thailand and Japan as part of its Asia tour between 19 July and 25 July 2024. To bolster its presence there, Borussia Dortmund played test matches against the Thai club BG Pathum United and the Japanese club Cerezo Osaka. Borussia Dortmund is also represented in Asia by its two companies BVB Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. and Borussia Dortmund Football (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. The goal of such trips, which are a key component of Borussia Dortmund’s internationalisation strategy, is to bring the club even closer to and connect with its international fan communities and partners and give all fans from around the world the chance to immerse themselves in the world of Borussia Dortmund.

Borussia Dortmund considers SPORTFIVE Germany GmbH to be a strong and reliable partner with a global marketing network and extensive expertise. Borussia Dortmund has entered into long-term contracts with its strategic partners (Vodafone Group until 2030, PUMA International Sports Marketing B.V. until 2034, and SIGNAL IDUNA Group until 2031), which give the club planning certainty. Borussia Dortmund also extended various other sponsorship relationships and entered into new contracts. The club has lost none of its appeal, despite the recent pandemic and tense global economic situation.

In the 2024/2025 season, Borussia Dortmund welcomed virtually sell-out crowds to all of its home matches at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK and was not hindered in any way from directly engaging and interacting with its fans Borussia Dortmund makes infrastructure investments in SIGNAL IDUNA PARK in order to continually improve the stadium experience for visitors and to better meet the increased logistical requirements. This included making our catering services and the associated logistics state of the art. The construction work was successfully completed as planned in financial year 2023/2024 prior to the start of the UEFA EURO 24. Accordingly, Borussia Dortmund and its fans have reaped the benefits of these measures at the home matches since the 2024/2025 season. Borussia Dortmund also previously launched a digitalisation initiative at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK – from the media centre to the video walls – to seize the opportunity to make the stadium digitally fit for the future and thereby even more accommodating to fans and sponsors alike. This digitalisation process will be systemically driven forward.

Borussia Dortmund is also keeping abreast of the latest technological developments in artificial intelligence and is already using the first AI solutions in several specific areas. The use of artificial intelligence will help to optimise and automate processes throughout the Group. This will enable Borussia Dortmund to create new services and offers for fans that previously would not have been technically or economically feasible.

Borussia Dortmund’s overall objective is to use AI to make workflows more efficient and effective, thereby boosting productivity and easing the burden on employees. The AI strategy devised by Borussia Dortmund and the establishment of BVB’s own AI principles form the basis for keeping pace with and benefiting from technological developments. Maintaining a digital, data-driven focus and becoming experts in the use of cutting-edge technologies will enable us to harness competitive advantages going forward.