BVB could continue to benefit from one major mistake for a long time to come: What remains of sporting director Sebastian Kehl’s legacy at Borussia Dortmund

When Zorc stepped down as sporting director in 2022, bringing an era to a close, and Kehl followed in his footsteps, officially taking on greater responsibility from then on, Dortmund had just come off the back of a mediocre season. Although they finished as runners-up behind FC Bayern, in the Champions League BVB, despite a manageable group (Ajax Amsterdam, Sporting Lisbon and Besiktas), missed out on a place in the knockout stages by finishing third. To make matters worse, after being relegated to the Europa League, their campaign came to an end in the play-off round against Glasgow Rangers, whilst in the DFB-Pokal, then second-tier side FC St. Pauli proved to be the end of the road in the round of 16.

Coach Marco Rose was therefore forced to leave after just one year. Edin Terzic, a coach with a track record of success who had led the team to the DFB-Pokal title as interim coach in 2020/21, was brought in to steer the Westphalians back to winning ways. And at sporting director level, Borussia had made a conscious decision to appoint another deserving former player following Zorc’s long tenure. “Of course he has big shoes to fill, but we are convinced that Sebastian has the tools necessary for the job,” emphasised then-managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke on Kehl’s promotion.

His first major task in his new role was, in the summer of 2022, to sign a successor for striker Erling Haaland, whose €60 million move to Manchester City had already been announced in May 2022. A complicated task, as finding a replacement in the same league as Haaland was a pipe dream for BVB. Sebastien Haller was among the strikers Dortmund could turn to, and at €31 million he became the second-most expensive signing in the club’s history after Ousmane Dembele (€35 million).

Signing Haller made sense. The Ivorian, then 28, was in his prime as a footballer; he had scored eleven goals in eight Champions League matches for Ajax Amsterdam the previous season and had helped his team to the Dutch league title with 21 league goals. He immediately made a name for himself at BVB, among other things, when he scored once and provided two assists in the 4-0 victory in one of the two Champions League group stage matches against the Westphalians. Furthermore, Haller knew the Bundesliga inside out from his two successful years at Eintracht Frankfurt (2017 to 2019).

Tragically, as is well known, the striker was diagnosed with testicular cancer in the summer of 2022, even before he could play his first competitive match for his new club. Kehl and the rest of the team stood by Haller throughout this difficult time and waited patiently for his recovery, which fortunately took place. And Haller, now playing for FC Utrecht, fought his way back to top form after months of suffering, playing a key role in the final stages of the near-championship-winning season. For example, in the supposedly decisive 3-0 win at Augsburg on the penultimate matchday, he first broke the deadlock with his opening goal and later added the crucial second. Had Haller converted the penalty six days later in the traumatic season finale against Mainz, we might well be saying today that Kehl had brought in Dortmund’s title-winning player as a replacement for Haaland.

Things turned out differently, and Haller did not go on to achieve sporting success at BVB in the long term. However, given his battle with cancer, this is actually a minor detail, and a purely objective assessment of the transfer would certainly not do justice to the situation. Instead, what should be remembered is that Kehl always stood by Haller as a friend.

Meanwhile, the second major task of Kehl’s first summer as sporting director was to replace Manuel Akanji, who was keen to leave. The fact that the centre-back went on to win the treble – the Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup – as a first-team regular with Manchester City just under a year later was, in retrospect, rather unfortunate from Dortmund’s perspective. Yet Kehl cannot be blamed for this.

BVB would have liked to keep Akanji, but the Swiss player rejected an offer to extend his contract, which was due to expire in 2023, and signalled to the club’s management that he wanted to seek a new challenge. Consequently, Kehl and his team were forced to sell Akanji in the summer of 2022 in order to recoup a transfer fee. They received €20 million from Manchester, which exactly matched the sum they had previously paid to SC Freiburg for Nico Schlotterbeck.

The current defensive leader had actually signed back in May 2022, when Zorc was still officially BVB’s sporting director. However, Kehl was, of course, already heavily involved in the transfer and was able to convince Schlotterbeck with his own past experiences. “Nico’s journey reminds me of my own, because I too came to BVB from Freiburg as a young international at his age,” said Kehl on the signing of the left-footed player. Especially as FC Bayern Munich are said to have been interested in Schlotterbeck back then too, the move can be considered an absolute coup. The 26-year-old has become a figurehead in Dortmund and, following discussions over the past few months – in which Kehl naturally played a key role – is now said to be leaning towards extending his contract with BVB, which expires in 2027, despite interest from notable clubs. And potentially becoming the face of a team that will win titles again in the future.

With Niklas Süle, Zorc and Kehl signed another central defender in 2022, whose free transfer from FC Bayern Munich to Signal Iduna Park was hailed as a major coup. Rightly so, as Süle remains one of the best German centre-backs in terms of potential and was a regular in the national team at the time of the transfer. Yet although Süle did have his good spells at BVB, after four years in black and yellow he must be regarded as a disappointment, simply because he failed to live up to expectations. As is well known, Süle will leave Dortmund on a free transfer this summer.

The first two new signings, for which Kehl was entirely responsible without Zorc’s involvement, went on to develop in very different ways. Somewhat surprisingly, he brought Julian Ryerson to Dortmund from Union Berlin in January 2023 – for just five million euros. Considering the consistency Ryerson has shown since his arrival and how he has even developed into a game-changer this season thanks to his strong set-pieces and ever-improving crosses, Kehl has secured an absolute bargain for BVB.

Julien Duranville, meanwhile, was a prospect for the future, but as is well known, the then 16-year-old has so far been unable to fulfil that promise, partly due to frequent injury problems. Since January, the attacking talent has been on loan at FC Basel, where he is getting regular playing time in Switzerland. The faint hope that he might still make his mark at BVB remains.

In the summer of 2023, after the championship title was dramatically squandered, Kehl once again had to replace a departing superstar. Jude Bellingham moved to Real Madrid for a base transfer fee of just over 100 million euros, around 67 million of which the sporting director was to invest in squad renewal. The plan was to spread the burden of succeeding Bellingham across the shoulders of two players at best, as the same problem existed as with Haaland: Dortmund simply has no chance of signing established players in Bellingham’s class.

Kehl initially pushed for the signing of Mexican international Edson Alvarez, a classic defensive midfielder. However, because manager Edin Terzic preferred to rely on Emre Can in this role, the deal fell through – and Kehl’s position was weakened in the public eye by the resulting revelations. To make matters worse, Alvarez’s position remains a squad issue at BVB to this day. In that respect, Terzic’s veto certainly did Kehl a disservice.

The fact that he signed Felix Nmecha for €30 million as a replacement for Bellingham instead of Alvarez has since paid off, following the latter’s mixed first two years in Dortmund. Under Niko Kovac, the 25-year-old has become indispensable in Borussia’s midfield and an absolute key figure; he could also play an important role for the German national team at the World Cup. Kehl was most recently responsible for extending the contract of the much-courted Nmecha, who, together with Schlotterbeck and a few other players, could form the backbone of a successful future.

Alongside Nmecha, Marcel Sabitzer arrived from FC Bayern Munich for €19 million as the second pillar of the Bellingham legacy. However, in his nearly three years at BVB, the Austrian has rarely had the impact that was hoped for.

And then Kehl was presumably persuaded by Terzic to sign another tall striker in the summer of 2023. Niclas Füllkrug was the man, and he had a decent goalscoring record, helping the team reach the Champions League final – which they lost to Real Madrid – among other things. Furthermore, the club made a transfer profit on the German international in 2024 when he moved to West Ham United after just one year (signed for €17.25 million, sold for €27 million). Nothing that will be remembered as a major highlight of the Kehl era, but at least a very good deal financially.

What could be viewed negatively regarding Kehl in 2023 was the succession of Raphael Guerreiro, who had moved to FC Bayern at the time. The signing of Ramy Bensebaini as the new left-back is said to have been pushed through by Kehl – whilst the Algerian certainly has his qualities and arrived on a free transfer from Mönchengladbach, he was a downgrade compared to Guerreiro. And: Apparently, Dortmund could have signed Alejandro Grimaldo for the left-back position instead of Bensebaini at the time; the Spaniard was reportedly offered to Kehl and his team. After BVB let the opportunity slip, Grimaldo, as is well known, moved on a free transfer from Benfica to Bayer Leverkusen and played a key role in the Werkself’s title-winning campaign the following season.

The fact that Kehl brought in another left-back in January 2024 in the form of Ian Maatsen – a player whose style was much closer to Guerreiro’s than Bensebaini’s – was, in a sense, an admission. And he got it spot on with Maatsen; the Dutchman, on loan from Chelsea at the time, became a first-team regular straight away and played a key part in the run to the Champions League final. Dortmund were just as unable to secure a permanent deal in the summer of 2024 as they had been with Jadon Sancho, with whom Kehl achieved a milestone both on and off the pitch. He brought the fan favourite back to BVB from Manchester United on loan; after a bit of a settling-in period, Sancho got better and better and also sparked enthusiasm among the supporters. After six months, however, he had to leave again.

Spring and summer 2024 proved to be quite a difficult period for Kehl from a personal and professional perspective. It is no secret that he would have liked to have taken over the role of sporting director following Hans-Joachim Watzke’s retirement. “It would have been a logical step for me,” Kehl had said of his ambitions in March 2024 on Sport1’s Doppelpass. Yet instead of Kehl, his former teammate Lars Ricken was ultimately promoted from head of youth development to the new sporting director in May 2024.

And then Kehl was also paired with Sven Mislintat, now sporting director at Fortuna Düsseldorf, as his new partner in charge of sporting affairs. A setup that was probably doomed to fail from the outset, quickly led to disagreements and culminated in Mislintat’s premature departure in February 2025.

By that point, Nuri Sahin had also left again; BVB had brought him back to the club in early 2024 as Terzic’s assistant coach and promoted him to head coach six months later. A decision in which Kehl naturally played a key role, as he knows Sahin very well from their time playing together at Borussia. “Nuri worked very passionately and very hard and gave it his all, but things just didn’t click after a while,” Kehl was forced to admit in May 2025 on Sport1’s ‘Doppelpass’.

Sahin was sacked after just six months, as BVB consistently failed to impress and were in danger of missing out on the Champions League. Yet Dortmund’s 2024 summer transfer window had been so highly praised.

With Serhou Guirassy, two years late, the centre-forward finally arrived who could at least go some way towards making people forget Haaland. Kehl also brought three German internationals to Dortmund in Waldemar Anton, Maximilian Beier and Pascal Groß. Although Groß returned to Brighton in early 2026, in hindsight these were all sound signings; after all, Anton, Beier and Guirassy are currently among Borussia’s most important players. Beier made it possible to sell Donyell Malen to Aston Villa for €25 million in early 2025. Anton has at least satisfactorily stepped into the difficult shoes of club icon Mats Hummels, who was not offered a new contract in 2024. And Guirassy, despite a few hiccups and the odd dip in form, usually delivers goals reliably.

Furthermore, Kehl has managed to make amends for the mistake with Sahin by bringing in Kovac. The Croatian ensured that Dortmund still reached the Champions League last season, noticeably stabilised the team, and this season BVB are likely to secure qualification for Europe’s premier competition with little trouble.

Nevertheless, the most recent transfer windows have had their mishaps, which continue to raise questions to this day. In the case of Yan Couto, for example, Dortmund agreed to a buy-out clause that was triggered fairly quickly when signing him on loan from Manchester City in the summer of 2024. As a result, BVB had to pay a total transfer fee of 25 million euros for the right-back, who has never managed to impress consistently in his year and a half in Westphalia and is mostly just a rotation player.

To bolster the centre-back position, Aaron Anselmino joined on loan from Chelsea FC last summer. Initially an excellent signing, the Argentine immediately showed his great potential in his first few games, but was repeatedly sidelined by injury. After just a few appearances, he had to return to the Blues in the winter and was subsequently loaned out to Strasbourg. A real disaster, considering that BVB play with a back three under Kovac and that experienced and fit centre-backs are now a rare commodity in the BVB squad.

However, Dortmund may well benefit from this major squad planning error in hindsight. After all, 18-year-old Luca Reggiani, who had to step in at short notice, proved to be a potentially even greater prospect for the future. BVB rewarded the good first impressions he made with a contract extension. Meanwhile, the bargain signing of Daniel Svensson was highly commendable; Dortmund paid a total of just eight million euros for him, and he is Mr Reliable on the left flank.

And then there are a few rather expensive transfers for which BVB could well be very grateful to Kehl in the future. Jobe Bellingham, for example, was one of the 46-year-old’s absolute top targets last summer; Borussia prevailed against notable competition in the race for the midfield talent and ultimately secured his signature for a transfer fee of 30.5 million euros. Bellingham’s first few months at BVB were then marked by problems and mostly unsatisfactory performances, yet the 20-year-old’s potential is enormous – and has recently become increasingly evident. Bellingham’s playing time has increased, as have his consistency and his value to the team. Dortmund could derive a great deal of pleasure from this youngster in the coming years.

This potentially applies to Fabio Silva as well, who arrived from Wolverhampton as a backup and, in the medium term, a possible successor to Guirassy. And it also applies to Carney Chukwuemeka, who continues to show glimpses of his outstanding talent. Should he remain injury-free in the long term, it could prove worthwhile that Kehl managed to secure the midfielder’s permanent move from Chelsea FC to BVB after persistent efforts.

Whoever succeeds Kehl: if Schlotterbeck extends his contract following Nmecha’s, he will find a squad at BVB with plenty of quality and the necessary depth, capable of pursuing ambitious goals with one or two high-quality additions. With the decisions not to renew the contracts of Julian Brandt, Salih Özcan and Süle, a minor shake-up is needed in the squad structure. What Dortmund should focus on for the time being in terms of new signings: a game-changing player to replace Brandt and another centre-back who can provide depth in the heart of defence and, ideally, contribute more to the attack than Süle has done recently. Everything else also depends on the still-pending decisions regarding the futures of top stars such as Karim Adeyemi or Guirassy.