Borussia Dortmund Football Club: A Legacy Of Passion And Excellence

Borussia Dortmund Football Club: A Legacy Of Passion And Excellence

Borussia Dortmund Football Club or also known as BVB is one of Germany's leading football clubs based out of Dortmund. Borussia Dortmund was founded in 1909, towards the start of the 20th century, and has been in existence for over 110 years. The club plays all home games at the Westfalestadion in Germany. The stadium is the biggest stadium in the country and one of the biggest in Europe. The club plays in its traditional canary yellow and black stripes jersey. The current head coach of the club is Lucien Favre. Since the club's inception, the club has won several honors that include a Champions League, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, and 8 German League Championships. Dortmund is the second most successful and richest German club for most of the 21st century. Borussia Dortmund Football Club plays derby matches with FC Schalke and the German Classico with Bayern Munich. Borussia also employs a youth-centric system and attracts the best youth talent in the world before making windfall gains on the sale of these players. The club then repeats the process by incorporating younger players into the team. The club is known for its attacking style of play. Supporters of the club are some of the most vocal supporters in Europe.

Borussia Dortmund Football Club’s Past

Dortmund traces its origins back to 1909, started by a group of boys. In fact, Borussia means Prusiaa in Latin. However, the club derived its name from a brewery by the same name located in Dortmund. And for more than 100 years, the team played with its iconic stripes of black and yellow.

1. Bankruptcy – In 1929, the club was almost bankrupt but was saved from winding up by a supporter. The club tried to sign professional players to move up in rankings and took out loans to finance these players. We all know what happened in 1929 (the start of the greatest depression). A single supporter of Dortmund helped the club by paying for its losses. It all started shortly after the club acquired the Borussia Sports park, their first home stadium. It compelled a feeling of rejuvenation to surge through the club and encouraged them to push for a spot in the big leagues. But to do this successfully, they knew they needed professional players. So, they took out a sizable loan of 1200RM (equal to half a million pounds today) to invest in building a squad. Sadly, things would go wrong here. The first issue sprang from the fact that the players they could secure didn't perform anywhere near expectations. So while Borussia Dortmund was able to initially secure a sport in the top sphere of the German Football league, they couldn't maintain it and ultimately went into relegation. The second issue, a direct result of the first, was the repayment of the entire exercise's illegality in the first place. Ultimately, because of the scandal, two board members, Heinz Schwaben and August Busse, had to appear in court and, in the end, even resign. Heinz saved the situation from getting worse for the club, who stepped up and paid the entire loan and its resulting interest all out-of-pocket.

2. Nazi Germany – Borussia Dortmund Football Club had a relatively dull period following the rise of the Nazi party. The then president of the club refused to join the Nazi party. The Nazi party executed a couple of the club's members who published anti-Nazi pamphlets. After the end of World War 2, Dortmund established themselves as a top contender and main rivals to Schalke 04. At the time, Schalke was the most dominant team in the league, especially during the 1940s. Dortmund won its first title in 1956, then in 1957 and 1963.

3. Bundesliga – The Bundesliga started from the German First Division in 1963. During this time, the club also won its first DFB-Pokal in 1965 and followed that up with a European Cup Winners Cup win in 1966. As one of the 16 teams to launch this new league, Borussia Dortmund put in a reasonably spectacular performance at the start of it all. They were able to earn a spot in the company thanks to their win in the previous pre-Bundesliga national championship tournament. While they would ultimately lose their first match, Friedhelm Konietzka was impressive on the pitch as he was quick to score a goal in just one minute in the game. They couldn't keep the top form they started 1966 with, as they ultimately surrendered the top spot to 1860 Munchen by the end of the league. Sadly, the start of the 70s saw a period of turmoil for the German club. The club ran into financial trouble again and was relegated in 1972, and only returned to the League four years later. While the club managed to get a lid on its finances, the club didn't fare much better on the pitch, only managing to narrowly avoid relegation on a couple of occasions until the 1990s.

4. The Golden Age – Borussia Dortmund Football Club's golden age started in the 1990s, with the team challenging for the title in 1992 and finishing 2nd. In 1993, the club reached the UEFA Cup finals but lost out to Juventus (6-1). This helped the club gain fame, reputation, and more importantly, finances to buy important players. The club managed to win consecutive league titles and the DFL Super Cup in 1996 and 1995. Dortmund managed to get their revenge in the 1997 European Cup final after defeating Juventus 3-1. This golden era would last long, though, as the team would have unavoidable problems with many of its key players in the coming season. For example, they had to play with Sammer, the squad's individual, who relied on heavily in the previous season. Thanks to an untimely injury, he would only play a few games throughout that season. Moller, another of the team's star players, also had to massive several critical matches throughout the season. Lambert returned to play in Scotland, so in the end, the team couldn't hold its own against some of the fiercer opponents they played against in 1998.

Borussia Dortmund’s Present

Borussia Dortmund Football Club is a publically traded German football club. Fans and investors can buy a stake in the club. The club has had periods of ups and downs in the last two decades. The club has played and won every major tournament, but faced a financial crisis in the early 2000s. In fact, Bayern Munich loaned the club over 2 million Euros so Dortmund could afford the player's salaries. Klopp managed to bring the club back to dominate the German League with two title wins in 2011 and 2012. The club finished as runners-up in 5 out of the last 8 seasons.

Borussia Dortmund’s Future

Borussia Dortmund Football Club is looking to build on a young squad and compete for the League and the Champions League. Some of the key players of the squad include Hazard, Haaland, Reus, Hummels, Witsel, Reinier, Bellingham, Delaney, etc. On the whole, Borussia Dortmund isn't one of those teams who has to worry too much about the sustainability of good play long term. It is because they've become remarkably adept at identifying young talents and helping these individuals blossom into their own over the years. Because of this, they have more latitude when it comes to team building and will be able to fare slightly better than several other teams, even if they do not use the transfer market to bring in new talent. From all indications, this club remains poised to maintain its dominant position and continue to lay its stakes in football.