In the last 10 years, major transfers between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have been quite one-dimensional.
Mario Gotze in 2013, Robert Lewandowski in 2014 and Mats Hummels in 2016. They all were on the brink of greatness in black and yellow. But having fallen just short in the Champions League final against Bayern in 2013, they ultimately switched sides. After all, Bavaria was and still is the place in Germany to crown your development as a footballer with domestic and international titles. Players who went the opposite route either were either deemed to be in decline (Hummels) or didn’t work out in Munich (Gotze).
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Each departure for Bayern, two of which via release clause or free transfer, resembled a merciless mirror for Dortmund, solidifying their status as the number two in the Bundesliga.
In 2022, that hierarchy hasn’t changed much. If anything Bayern’s dominance has increased, while Dortmund faces enough problems to solidify their status as the best of the rest.
It is this that makes it all the more interesting a renowned 26-year-old German international has chosen to switch red and white for black and yellow. Niklas Sule has decided to spend the peak of his career in Dortmund, having agreed to a free transfer after the season.
This has caused astonishment in Germany.
To begin with, why is he even leaving? The news of Sule’s departure from Munich is the finale to a contract stand-off between club and player.
Although Bayern’s chief executive Oliver Kahn claimed the club had presented the defender with “a very good offer” but had to respect “certain economic limits”, Sule’s agent made it clear his client’s decision to leave had “nothing to do with monetary reasons” at all.
Appearing on German TV show Doppelpass on Sunday, agent Volker Struth calmly emphasised that Sule “feels he is not valued enough” by the club. After all, Bayern didn’t approach him until six months before his deal expired and not the industry-typical two years prior, when he was recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). In addition, his fitness was prejudicially and harshly scrutinised by the media from time to time, such as after he wasn’t allowed to train due to a COVID-19 scare. Sources tell The Athletic the player was occasionally disappointed about the club’s lack of backing.
Sule is swapping Bayern for Dortmund in the summer (Photo: Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)“He told the club on January 2 that he definitely wanted to leave in the summer. We never negotiated,” Struth said.
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Money vs appreciation. It has become the narrative of the debate about Sule’s motives. Bayern’s former boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge cut things short, declaring “appreciation is only calculated in Euros – nothing else” and inflaming the discussion by questioning the players’ sporting value.
“Sule was always a useful player. The problem is, he never really asserted himself in his position,” Rummenigge added after Sule had made his decision.
But is that the case?
“I believe that Sule’s performances were always associated with a lot of ups and downs,” Jurgen Kohler, who played for Dortmund as well as Bayern, tells The Athletic. “But he is top quality and has been successful at Bayern, winning the treble and championships. It is tedious to say how much of that is down to him. He was a part of the whole picture,” the former defender added.
While he did occasionally benefit from other injuries, Sule was mostly first choice after joining Bayern from Hoffenheim for €20 million in 2017, having appeared in 159 matches. The vital role he played in the Champions League final 2020 against Paris Saint-Germain, when he helped keep a clean sheet against Kylian Mbappe and Neymar to secure the treble only 10 months after tearing his ACL, underlines his importance.
Reunited with former Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann last summer, Sule has remained an important cog in the team, making the most appearances this season of all defenders in the squad (19), a fact Dortmund were sure to highlight in their press release on Monday.
Nagelsmann, with whom he is said to be on good terms, called Sule’s departure “a bitter loss”. His captain Manuel Neuer publicly disagreed with club icon Rummenigge, telling Sky the defender “asserted himself” at Bayern, before calling him a “cornerstone” of the team. In the dressing room, he is a popular figure and held in high regard.
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Higher up in the club hierarchy, that only partly seems to be the case, as the lack of urgency and conviction in contract talks indicates, despite having lost David Alaba on a free just a year ago.
With Lucas Hernandez and Dayot Upamecano, who cost a combined €120 million, as well as talented 19-year-old Tanguy Nianzou in the wings, Bayern might have felt well equipped to do so.
At Dortmund, however, a centre-back of Sule’s quality is desperately needed. BVB’s attack (54 goals) has only been bettered by Bayern’s (68), but their defence has conceded the fifth-most goals in the league (36). It’s a major reason for the nine-point deficit in the Bundesliga and their early exit from the Champions League.
The 5-2 home loss to Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday relentlessly exposed the main weaknesses: Dan-Axel Zagadou struggled to play out of the back while under pressure, which resulted in the first goal, the back four doesn’t have the speed to play a high line and the entire team lacks robustness. Fittingly, these are all areas Sule excels in.
“He has a lot of experience, calmness in his build-up play and the necessary physicality to take the next step together with us from the summer onwards,” Dortmund’s soon-to-be sports director Sebastian Kehl proudly announced.
It’s easy to see why Sule feels needed in Dortmund.
“From the first time I made contact, I immediately sensed the people in charge at the club were very keen to work with me,” Sule, who rarely talks to the media, told Bild. “They gave me an impressive impression of the role I could play at BVB and I had the feeling that I was wanted as a person and as a footballer. I was impressed by the way they cared for me.”
Süle’s departure from Munich is the finale to a contract standoff between club and player (Photo: Jose Manuel Alvarez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)While these words seem to be chosen with a certain intent, his decision to sign for Germany’s second team not only leaves a sour taste in Munich, it reeks of integrity and conviction.
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Sources tell The Athletic that there were clubs from Italy and England who were interested in Sule, but the player was very intrigued by what Dortmund had to offer outside of money. “BVB might not be the No 1 in Germany, but they are a top address. The crowd, the stadium, it’s second to none. It’s a special atmosphere at the club, there is a different closeness to the people,” Kohler, who won the Champions League (1997) and two championships with Borussia, explained to The Athletic.
Although Sule will belong to the top earners at Dortmund, he won’t make much more than he would have at Bayern. He may have even taken a pay cut and would definitely have made more with a move to the Premier League.
“I generally don’t think that players move for less money,” Kohler said. “At the same time, you might be in a financial area where these differences no longer play a major role. So while the monetary aspect must fit, it may have been a factor of appreciation or where he feels good,” the World Cup winner added.
By taking this next step in black and yellow, the 37-cap Germany international is embracing the attention and pressure that go along with moving to a club that needs him more than the club they are chasing.
“Sule was brought in to lead the way, he now has to bring the answers on the pitch. Only performances count, that’s how top players and leaders crystallise,” Kohler, who made 191 appearances for Dortmund, pointed out. “He now has the chance to become a conductor in another orchestra, unlike at Bayern where he was one of many. That will be his challenge. I don’t see Sule as world class at the moment, but at his age, he has the time to mature and improve.”
At a first glance, it seems this transfer doesn’t have any losers. Despite his quality, Bayern seem more than capable to compensate for Sule’s departure. For Dortmund, though, his arrival might not close the gap to the top, but having secured an established top player from their biggest rival instead of sending one the other way, it is a step in the right direction.
And for Sule himself, it’s a chance to prove that appreciation is a currency that exists independently of financial frameworks.
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
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