Kloppos Kindergarten A report on young players at Borussia en route to success, Part II
Here´s part two of our review on the young guns at Borussia Dortmund.
This part focusses on our U23 talents in midfield and attack.
Midfielders:
Did I really state the last time around, that the defence was the area, where the youngsters had the biggest impact on our current BVB squad?
Well, on second thought, I might have to correct myself.
Because looking at our midfield, you find young players, setting the pace of our offensive game and also directing the defensive efforts.
Because the veterans were unable to play their intended roles, their younger team mates had to take charge. For example team-leader and captain Sebastian Kehl (29) has been out all season with problems with the adductor muscles in his groin and playmaker Tamas Hajnal (28) could not keep up last seasons strong performance in the first few games and then incurred a ligament rupture in his ankle.
Hajnal has returned to the squad recently, but Kehl, on his seemingly endless way to full recovery, has only just started team training and is still well away from match fitness.
When you talk about talent in Dortmund´s midfield, first and foremost Nuri Sahin (21) has to be mentioned.
The young Turk, who grew up in Meinerzhagen (ca. 60 km from Dortmund), started his professional career aged 16 in 2005, when coach Bert van Maarwijk picked him out of Borussia´s U17 youth team to join the squad.
Nuri had caught international attention earlier that year, when he lead the Turkish team to win the U17 Euro and was elected best player of the tournament.
Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger called Nuri the biggest talent under 18 at the time.
The young prodigy Sahin went on to pulverise the records.
When he played in the UI-Cup against Olmütz, he was the youngest player to ever take part in an European Cup game.
Until now, he is still the youngest ever to play and to score in the Bundesliga.
The same year, he made his début for the Turkish team, funny enough, against his country of birth Germany and, when he was just 4 minutes on the field, scored the final goal to the Turkish 2:0 win. And guess what? Of course he is the youngest, that ever played and the youngest that ever scored for the Turkish national team.
In his first season in professional football, Nuri was a regular starter for the BVB and it looked, as though he could live up to the expectations, he had created with his early success. But after his mentor van Maarwijk had to leave the club in winter 2006, Nuri had to cope with the first major setback of his young career.
Thomas Doll did not rate Sahin´s qualities as high, as his antecessor had done and Nuri soon was downgraded to substitute.
Questions arose, whether Nuris physical constitution was sufficient for professional football. While it was obvious, that Sahin was a very intelligent player, who could read a game well and had the ability to send long distance passes with unrivalled accuracy, he was no natural sprinter and Doll took his calm and serene ways for laziness.
At the end of season 06/07, much against his own will, Nuri was loaned to Feyenoord Rotterdam, where Bert van Maarwijk went on to form him as a player.
In his season at Rotterdam Nuri was a regular starter and won the Dutch Cup with his team.
But Sahin did not give up his dream, of making it at Borussia Dortmund.
Unfortunately, when he returned to Dortmund, he was injured and missed most of the pre-season preparation, so new coach Jürgen Klopp failed to realise Nuris potential and even agreed to sell him.
But Nuri strictly refused to be sold. “Dortmund is my home and I will always remain a Dortmunder” he said later on in an interview, reviewing this difficult period in his career.
Again it seemed doubtful, whether Sahin would fit into the concept of his coach.
Klopp prefers to base the game of his teams on defensive stability, earned by outrunning the opposition. For this he needs quick players with a good endurance.
As we know by now, these are not exactly Sahin´s natural strengths.
So Nuri had to start his comeback at BVB from the bench.
But it took Klopp only a couple of months to realise, what great player he had at hand.
When Nuri reached his full match fitness, he soon became a cornerstone of the team and by now it is unthinkable, to not have him on our starting line-up.
He handles the ball like the best in the league and is able to play the right pass at the right time with unique precision. Nuri organises Borussias game from defensive midfield and is responsible for our spot kicks.
Nuri led the team as captain for the first time in the win over Hamburg, as substitute for the injured Kehl and Weidenfeller. Even at his young age, he is rated as the natural successor, once skipper Sebastian Kehl passes the torch.
Nuri Sahin has played 92 games in the Bundesliga and 29 in the Dutch Eredivisie and has won 15 caps for Turkey. Please mind, that he is still only 21 years old.
If you had to pick the player of our team, that most exceeded expectations this season, Sven Bender (20) would be a natural choice. Bender joined Borussia from 2nd Bundesliga club 1860 München last summer, in exchange for right back Antonio Rukavina.
As Borussia seemed to have an oversupply of midfielders, Bender was expected to rather help our reserve team, than to be a major factor in Klopp´s considerations regarding the Bundesliga line-up.
But with the injuries of Kehl and later on Tinga came the chance for Bender to start and he jumped at the opportunity.
He collaborates well with Sahin in defensive midfield, his main strength being tacklings and the ability to foresee the right moment to take on a challenge. He covers the more offensive orientated Sahin and is always willing to run the extra mile for the team.
With 11 games as a starter Sven is that well established in our team, that discussions came up, whether it would be possible for skip Kehl to regain his position, when he finally recovers. But since the winter break Bender has had some problems with his knee, that forced Klopp to leave him out of the squad of the Stuttgart game, which for sure was one of the main factors, that led to our defeat.
It would be a hard blow for the team if Bender would be missing any longer, as we did not yet loose, with him on our line-up and coach Klopp is running out of options. Apart from the recently recovered Hajnal, none of our injured midfielders is likely to return soon.
Nelson Valdez (26) has spent more than eight years in professional football. But this season has had a new experience for him in store: A competitor that is able to master him at his own game.
Until now it was a given fact amongst Borussia fans, that Valdez, who has some technical limitations and often gives the impression, that he couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo, makes up for these shortcomings with his unrivalled endurance and will to sacrifice everything he´s got for the team.
But Dortmund born Kevin Großkreutz (21) has set a new team record, when he ran incredible 13.5 km in the away win at Project Hoffenheim and his identification with the team is absolutely unquestionable.
Kevin has played for the BVB youth teams until 2002, when he was sent away, due to doubts in his physical constitution. He was not considered, to be strong enough, to make it to the professionals.
Kevin moved to Rot-Weiss Ahlen. But even after he made it into their Bundesliga 2 squad, continued to support the BVB on the Südtribüne or at away games, whenever possible.
This unique identification with the club and its fans, forms a special bond between Kevin and the BVB supporters, who cheer Kevin by chanting “wir sind alle Dortmunder Jungs” (wer´re all Dortmunder boys).
Schwatzgelb.de is proud, to have Kevin as regular columnist on our team.
Kevin grabbed the microphone and sang “Heja BVB” with the complete Westfalenstadion at the 100th birthday celebration after the win against Freiburg and had a legendary guest appearance with Pommes Schwarz Gelb later on that night at the fan organised party.
His prospects of a professional singing career are rather doubtful, though he has to be credited, for knowing all the lyrics to our favourite terrace chants.
Kevin has scored twice so far this season. The thought of him scoring regularly, must be a nightmare to Nelson Valdez. He started the season as substitute, but Klopp included Kevin in 11 of the first 13 games. Since the game at Hoffenheim he is in the starting line-up and as this game marked the start of a six game winning streak for Borussia, Kevin is likely to remain there. Großkreutz has played three times for the German U19 and has an invitation to join the U21.
Yasin Öztekin (22), born in Dortmund, has played a leading role in last season´s succesful campaign of our reserve for promotion to league 3, when he scored 10 goals and provided 11 assists in 30 games. Yasin has joined the club in 1996 at nine. He has played once in Bundesliga and cup for the pros in 08/09.
In pre-season Klopp tested Öztekin as left back, even though he usually plays offensive midfield. At the start of the season he was on the bench of the pros regularly, but did not get to play a single minute.
After playing 10 games for the reserve and scoring once, Öztekin suffered a broken shin-bone and it might still take a couple of weeks for him to return to team training.
Another “veteran” of our reserve team is Sebastian Tyrala (21), who plays central offensive midfielder or striker. He joined the club in 1999 and was rated as a huge talent.
He was picked for the pro squad alongside Nuri Sahin when he was 16 in 2005 but suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in pre-season training, when he collided with giant Jan Koller. He gave his Bundesliga début in 06/07 and has played 7 times for the pros so far.
He played 16 times for German youth teams, but has chosen to follow the invitation from his land of birth Poland and started for their national team last December in an international friendly against Serbia.
The last of Borussias young-guns in midfield to step into the spotlight, may well be the most promising one: Mario Götze (17) has made a huge impression in his years in youth football. In 2009 Mario was awarded the Fritz-Walter-Medal in gold as best German U17 footballer of the year, after winning the U17 Euro with the German team.
So far Mario has played in 19 games (5 goals) for the various German youth teams.
Mario plays in offensive midfield, as playmaker or as wingman on both sides, as he is a two-footed player with great technique.
Mario moved to Dortmund, when he was six and joined the BVB in 2001, where he played for all the youth teams. Last year he played for BVB´s U19 even though he was still allowed to play for the U17. Due to the many injured players of the pro squad, Götze has not been able, to take part in many matches of our U19 this season, but was mostly watching Bundesliga matches from bench perspective. He was included in three games so far, but only for a total of 14 minutes. But coach Klopp holds Mario in high esteem and plans to build up the gifted talent patiently and carefully, to enable him, to live up to the expectations in the long run.
Strikers:
Since last seasons world-leading goalgetter Lucas Barrios (25) is running at full capacity after a few weeks of acclimatisation, he is the guiding star of Borussia´s offence, with 10 goals scored so far in league fixtures. Usually the experienced Nelson Valdez (26) or Mohammed Zidan (28) are playing besides or behind him. But in the shadow of these veterans young and ambitious players are lurking for their time to shine.
The chance to sign talented French striker Damien Le Tallec (19) came on short notice, when he fell out with with his former club Stade Rennes and therefore was able to leave, without any transfer fee asked. He started the season in the reserve team, where he scored twice in seven games and overall played so well, that he got picked for the Bundesliga squad regularly.
But in his second game for the pros at Osnabrück, when he was just 5 minutes on the pitch, he fell so unlucky, that he suffered a severe shoulder injury, from which he has recovered just recently.
At Borussia´s away game in Stuttgart, Damien replaced the injured Kuba after 22 minutes and though he could not prevent the defeat, he was one of the better players in an overall weak Dortmund side on this day.
So far Damien has proven, to be a talented striker, who moves well and knows how to find the target, but his stay in Dortmund has been too brief for a final judgement of his qualities.
He has played 15 times (6 goals) for the French U19.
Daniel Ginczek (18) has had a great half year in spring 09, scoring 10 times in 14 matches for the reserve. He was a key factor in overtaking Kaiserlautern II, and gaining promotion to league 3 in his first half year in amateur football. This season he has been struggling as much as the team at the start of the season and had to wait until December to net, when he made a spectacular comeback and scored all goals in the 3:0 win against Wacker Burghausen.
Daniel is a tall, strong centre forward, who seems destined to make it into professional football. He has not yet been on the pitch in the Bundesliga, but is a regular substitute with the pros lately. He has played 10 times for various German youth teams.
Another talented striker, Dortmund born Marco Stiepermann (18), who joined Borussia in 1998 at seven, has had his début with the pros this season, when he replaced Lucas Barrios for the last 4 minutes of the away win at Wolfsburg. Last season in the U19 he was outshone a bit by Tolgay Aslan, who scored 30 times in 26 matches. But when Aslan decided to try his luck at HSV last summer, Stiepermann took over and found the net 12 times in 12 games so far.
Currently Marco is at the German U19 training camp in Spain alongside team mate Marc Hornschuh. Daniel Ginczek and Lasse Sobiech, who were also invited, had to pass, due to injuries.
Christopher Kullmann (23) last years top scorer of our reserve team with 19 goals, has lost track of his finishing qualities this season and has done no harm at all to opposing goalies. He has played 7 times in the Bundesliga in 08/09, but has been on the pitch for a total of only 59 minutes.
This could be a decisive half year for Kullmann at BVB, as younger players like Le Tallec, Ginczek and Stiepermann seem to have surpassed him in Jürgen Klopps favour. It seems pretty safe to assume, that Christopher´s days in Dortmund are numbered, since regulations in league 3 state, that reserve teams are allowed to play with only three players above 23 years at a time.
But at this point one can not predict, which of the aspiring strikers in Borussia´s squad will get the chance, to play a leading role in the Bundesliga team. The talent is there and the current coach is willing to rely on young players, so the odds are not too bad, for them to make it.
Even though everything looks bright for the future of Borussia Dortmunds bunch of fresh high-flyers, setbacks are to be expected. But as long as this team continues, to show the will, to invest everything available at the moment, it can be sure, to have the unconditional support of its followers.
It is often heard nowadays around the Westfalenstadion, that being a fan of Borussia, has not been as much fun and as unstressed for a very long time, as it is with the current team and coach. It is just a great perspective, to watch this team grow up.
So much for our round-up of Borussia´s young guns. Stay tuned, to keep up with the development of some promising careers in German professional football.
Finally, a short review of Bundesliga history, which shows, that Dortmund has always had a good soil, to grow football talents:
Youngest players in Bundesliga history:
1. Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund) 16 years, 11 months and 1 day
2. Jürgen Friedl (Eintracht Frankfurt) 17 years, 0 months and 26 days
3. Ibrahim Tanko (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years, 1 month and 30 days
8. Marc-André Kruska (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years, 4 months and 15 days
10. Mario Götze (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years, 5 months and 18 days
19. Lars Ricken (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years, 7 months and 26 days
Youngest to score in Bundesliga history:
1. Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years and 2 months
2. Lars Ricken (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years and 8 months
3. Ibrahim Tanko (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years and 8 months
4. Marc-Andre Kruska (Borussia Dortmund) 17 years and 10 months
web, 03+1.02.2010
