“We will find the next one”

BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke was not particularly shocked or expressed emotionally about Erling Haaland’s move.

The BVB star striker will play for Manchester City next season. Watzke already commented on April 26th CNN to the forthcoming change. However, the interview was not published until Monday evening. “We’ve been playing football in Dortmund for 113 years and we’ve done 111 of those years without Erling Haaland,” said Watzke, who was not very concerned.

“We had Robert Lewandowski and he left us in 2014. But we played football in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and we still play it to this day,” he drew a comparison with Bayern’s top striker. Watzke is not particularly sad about the loss: “Then came Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and then Erling Haaland and you can be sure – if Erling decides to leave us – we will 100 percent find the next one.”

It was different with another BVB transfer. “It was very emotional for me when Mats Hummels told me in 2016 that he would leave the club after seven or years because it was a long time and we had a very special relationship,” Watzke recalled. “But sometimes players are only at BVB for one, two or three years and the emotions don’t run that deep. And in football it’s normal for players to come and go when they want,” summed up the 62-year-old.

Borussia Dortmund wants to sign young players with potential anyway and then sell them profitably. “That’s the only way for us. If a player shows very good performances, we fight against the really big clubs with the oligarchs and the Arab states behind us,” explains Watzke. “And we can’t win that fight. But we can win a fight for an 18-year-old like Jude Bellingham because that player loves to play for Borussia Dortmund because we always have over 80,000 spectators and the club knows how to deals with young players”, the BVB boss remains realistic.