Story
Three lads, one goal: Professional football at BVB!
Two huge sofas, a projector on the ceiling. Photos of the current residents hang on the wall. A table football table and a dartboard are ready for action. It is here – in the lounge of the BVB youth academy – that Aaron, Marwan and Till have gathered for their first podcast. "They're a bit excited," said Stefanie Scheibe, the director of the youth academy. And what the boys didn't know was that club photographer Alexandre Simoes was coming along too. So it's time to sort out their hair. Then the recording can begin.
What is it like to play for Borussia Dortmund as a youth player? And to live at the youth academy too? All three are not from the Ruhr region. At some point in their young lives, they decided together with their parents and BVB that they dared to make the move! And they relocated to Dortmund. Aaron came from 1. FC Nürnberg in 2022. Nowadays, he is the goalkeeper in the U19 team. Marwan was born in the Bielefeld area. He has commuted to Dortmund for training since U12 level. That stopped at the start of the year: the U17 player now lives where he trains. Till moved to Dortmund from Berlin in the summer. He previously laced his boots for Hertha BSC. Now he plays for BVB's U15 team.
All three are united by their desire to make it at BVB. Yet none of them can be sure that they will succeed. They are all currently fighting for game time. What's more, Aaron openly admits that last season was "not the easiest". And this season? Robin Lisewski has been given the nod in goal for the U19s. Aaron is from the so-called younger year group. That means Robin is a year further along and is now gaining valuable experience in the Youth League. "I really want to play in the Youth League next year so that I can prove myself on the biggest-possible stage in youth football," said Aaron. His goalkeeping coach Tobias Ritz has lauded him as a "team player" and outlined a long-term option to him: to put himself in position now for the coming season. But: "Nothing is given away!" Aaron knows this and even said that he "emerges from setbacks stronger". He has just overcome one such setback: After breaking his middle finger in training, he is now able to return to full training with the U19s in the coming days and offer Robin Lisewski competition.
Marwan gets a great write-up from his former coach Andreas Bona. When the Bielefeld native started his spell with the Borussia Dortmund U12s at the age of only 11, Bona was his coach – and remained in that role for four years. "Marwan assumed responsibility at a young age, for himself and others," acknowledged his ex-coach. In other words, there is someone at BVB who casts his eyes around the dressing room and gets involved. He has set out his big objective very clearly: "I certainly want to become a professional." He is working hard towards that. Marwan's diligence in training is confirmed by Bona too. And the 15-year-old has set himself another clear goal: After Borussia Dortmund's B-juniors became German champions last season, he wants to defend the title with his team-mates in 2025.
Till is the youngest in the group. Although he has only been living at the youth academy for a few months, he interacts with his flatmates like someone who has known everything and everyone for years. The settling-in process happened "very quickly", said Till, who also admitted that he still gets homesick sometimes. His parents travel from Brandenburg for every one of his matches.
Although they live under the same roof, all three are contending with something different. Till, who is 14, is experiencing the bio-banding training method. Bio-banding essentially means that players are sometimes separated from their age groups and train alongside boys who are similar to them in terms of their physical development. Marwan has already completed the group phase of the newly-created Nachwuchsliga with the U17s, in which BVB qualified for the A-Liga in second place. Aaron, on the other hand, is finishing off the group phase with the U19s. European matches in Zagreb and at home to Barcelona still await his team in 2024.
At the beginning of 2025, the three will meet again in the lounge at the youth academy. A lot will have happened by then. On and off the pitch.