Highlights

• Borussia Dortmund has struggled to retain their brightest talent, resulting in the loss of several world-class players.
• Despite keeping most players in the goalkeeping department, Dortmund has lost valuable assets like Manuel Akanji in defence.
• The team of ex-Der BVB players, including Ousmane Dembele and Erling Haaland, could have achieved great success if retained by Dortmund.

Over the years, Borussia Dortmund have seen some truly spectacular talents come through the doors at the club.

They’ve had no trouble whatsoever finding talent and moulding them into undeniably world-class players capable of playing for just about anyone.

What they have struggled with, though, is keeping hold of said players, and it’s become a recurring theme for the side to lose some of their brightest talent in the transfer market.

It’s time to look back and ponder on what could have been if Dortmund had managed to keep hold of all the incredible names that had once featured for the team over the years.

Don’t look now Dortmund fans, but we’ve put together a team of ex-Der BVB players and this side is capable of winning just about everything there is to win.

Goalkeeper - Mitchell Langerak

Without disrespecting Langerak, the goalkeeping department is the one area where Dortmund have managed to keep who they want. Lanergak departed in 2015 after five years in the black and yellow having failed to become the regular first choice.

Centre back - Matthias Ginter

An incredibly capable defender at the top level, what was worse about Dortmund losing Ginter in 2017, was that it was to city rivals Borussia Monchengladbach. By no means is it Dortmund's biggest miss in this XI, but let's not downplay how important an asset he could have been in previous years had he not have made the move away.

Centre back - Mats Hummels

Okay, so Hummels ultimately did end up back in Dortmund, but that was only after Bayern Munich had gotten done using him during his prime years to continue their Bundesliga domination. Returning to Der BVB in 2019, Hummels' best years were already behind him, crucially.

Centre back - Manuel Akanji

Losing Manuel Akanji is rough enough but doing so for just £15m is pretty brutal. The central defender spent five seasons at Dortmund, and was a firm fixture among the side’s backline.

A rough period during his time there saw fans turn against him, but he quickly turned things around and was a big favourite once he departed last year. It initially seemed as though Manchester City were signing the 28-year-old to serve as a backup to their current defenders and add depth to the side, but some incredible performances saw him force his way into the team, and he’s remained a key component to Pep Guardiola’s squad ever since.

Winning the treble in his first season at the club, it’s safe to say Akanji is destined to win plenty more as a valuable member of City’s defence.

Right wing - Ousmane Dembele

Having starred as a teenager at Rennes, Dortmund - as ever - acted quickly to snap up one of the hottest prospects in Europe in 2016. The Frenchman rapidly became a superstar in his maiden campaign with Die Borussen, prompting Barcelona to snap him up using a chunk of the world record fee they'd just received for Neymar in 2017.

Injuries severely halted his progress in Spain, though, and after six seasons that offered glimpses of quality but failed to reach the next level, Dembele joined Paris Saint-Germain in the summer and will look to rediscover the form he once showed at Dortmund.

Centre midfield – Jude Bellingham

Jude Bellingham was one of the most highly sought-after prospects in the world when Dortmund signed him from Birmingham City in 2020, and it was always expected that he’d become a truly world-class player.

Many probably wouldn’t have expected it to come so soon, though, and the Englishman left Der BVB this summer in a mega-money move to Real Madrid. Despite being just 20 years old, there are few midfielders in the world who are on Bellingham’s level. He’s quickly found his feet with Los Blancos, too, with three goals in his first two appearances for the club.

The sky truly is the limit for the midfielder and there’s no telling what Dortmund could have accomplished if they had a hold of him for the foreseeable future.

Central midfield - Ilkay Gundogan

Gundogan left Dortmund in 2016 as a promising but injury-hit midfielder, with a £21m fee paid by Manchester City solid business for a player with only a year left on his contract. Considering that he then evolved into a key piece of the puzzle for Guardiola, a leader and, crucially, a five-time Premier League winner, Der BVB are probably kicking themselves that they let him slip from their grasp. His form was vital to City winning the treble last year, and he has since earned a dream move to Barcelona.

Central midfield - Mario Gotze

Similarly to Hummels, Bayern Munich came calling for Gotze the moment he showed glimpses of being top-class. Die Roten snatched him away from Dortmund in 2013, and when he scored the winner in the 2014 World Cup final, Gotze looked destined for the top. He never reached it, though, and was back in Dortmund with his confidence shattered by 2016. You can only wonder how different that story would've been had he not left too soon.

Left winger - Jadon Sancho

They did all they could to stave off the interest of Manchester United by commanding a fee well in excess of £100m but, eventually, Dortmund caved and sold Sancho in 2021 for just £73m. Although he was excellent in Germany, the England international has struggled back in Manchester for the last two years now, failing to perform as well as he did for BVB. He has a big season ahead of him this year, with his United future potentially in the balance.

Striker - Erling Haaland

Dortmund knew what they were getting the moment they signed Haaland in 2020. The former RB Salzburg man tore up the Bundesliga for two-and-a-half seasons, with Haaland getting his hands on the DFB-Pokal and scoring an insane 86 goals in 89 games. But his departure was inevitable.

His form at Manchester City has been absolutely sensational as well, with the striker breaking the record for most goals scored in a Premier League season and completing a historic treble with the club, all in his first 12 months.

Striker - Robert Lewandowski

As Erling Haaland has terrorised football in recent years, only one striker has really come close to matching his output in front of goal and it just so happens to be another former Dortmund striker in Robert Lewandowski.

The Polish hitman was iconic for Dortmund, scoring 103 goals in 183 appearances for the side, but his move to Bayern Munich (another one), saw his form reach even greater heights as he scored 344 goals in 373 appearances for the German giants.

Having left Bayern last summer after eight magnificent seasons there, he joined Barcelona and has hit the ground running in Spain, scoring 33 goals during his first campaign at the Camp Nou. Just imagine having Lewandowski and Haaland leading the lines together.

There are plenty of other big names who we could have included

It’s a testament to just how talented the Dortmund alumni have been over the years that we could even name a bench of top-level names who they’ve lost.

Christian Pulisic, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Shinji Kagawa are just a selection of stars who impressed at the club before trying their luck in the Premier League. The former moved to Chelsea, while the middle two signed with Arsenal and the latter pair headed to Manchester United.

Aubameyang is the only one who really replicated the form he showed in Germany, though, with the other four disappointing during their time in England.

Roman Burki spent several seasons as Dortmund’s definitive number-one goalkeeper, but Father Time caught up to him, and he left the side for the MLS in 2022 when he joined brand-new expansion side St. Louis City SC.

Rounding out the impressive list of subs, we have Raphael Gurreirro who left the club on a free transfer this summer after several seasons. Like so many others in the squad, he joined Bayern Munich.