DUSSELDORF, GERMANY (AP) – Borussia Dortmund had the summer to brood on how they blew the chance to dethrone Bayern Munich. Now Dortmund must do it all again – this time without star player Jude Bellingham.
Drawing 2-2 with Mainz on the final day of last season, coupled with a late Bayern win over Cologne, handed the Bundesliga championship to Bayern and silenced the crowd of 81,000.
After 11 Bayern titles in a row, the Bundesliga arguably needs a strong Dortmund more than it needs a strong Bayern, especially in terms of marketing the league to foreign audiences as competitive.
Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke, who also has a senior role with the league, agrees the club carries a responsibility not just to its fans, but to the competition as a whole.
“We know our responsibility but it’s also important to tell everybody that it’s not so easy (to challenge Bayern),” he said in a recent call with reporters, emphasising that Bayern can afford to spend much more on players than Dortmund.
“In May, it was for us a disaster, on the last matchday to lose the championship in the 89th minute, but for the Bundesliga it was a fantastic season. It was very exciting.”
Falling short last season was a disappointing end to a strong Dortmund challenge led by Bellingham and striker Sébastien Haller, who returned from cancer treatment mid-season.
However, that title shot required a string of Bayern blunders, too.
Bayern signed England captain Harry Kane in a deal which reportedly could hit more than GBP100 million, but Dortmund’s own England star Bellingham left for Real Madrid in June for an initial EUR103 million, potentially rising to more than EUR130 million with add-ons.
He is the latest in a string of young Dortmund stars to move on to bigger clubs, after the likes of Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho and Christian Pulisic.
