Championships and Cup Victories of BVB Youth

Training highly talented young footballers at a high level, fostering and challenging them, developing them further, and ideally instilling team spirit and a winning mentality in strong teams: This is a significant challenge that dedicated coaches and staff face year after year. This balancing act, which requires the utmost quality and sensitivity, is successfully managed at the BVB Youth Performance Center in Brackel, thanks to further optimizations in both structural and personnel areas. 

Since the introduction of the Junior Bundesliga (U19 in 2003, U17 in 2007), Borussia Dortmund has set two records: no club has ever won six consecutive German championships (from 2013/14 to 2018/19), and only BVB has managed to successfully defend a title at the A-Junioren level (U19) (2016, 2017). During this time, the club also paved the way for many talents to enter professional football, including Dzenis Burnic, Christian Pulisic, Orel Mangala, Felix Passlack, Jakob Bruun Larsen, Amos Pieper, Janni Serra, and more recently Tobias Raschl, Patrick Osterhage, Tobias Mißner, Robin Kehr, and Paul Besong. Before that, the youth department had already produced established professionals such as Kerem Demirbay, Antonio Rüdiger, and Daniel Ginczek.

The latest success story began with the exceptional 1998 class and coach Hannes Wolf. BVB triumphed in the 2013/14 German B-Junior Championship final against RB Leipzig with a 2-1 victory. Both goals were scored by David Sauerland. The team repeated its success a year later in Großaspach with a 4-0 win against VfB Stuttgart, then coached by Domenico Tedesco. Borussia, featuring players such as Amos Pieper, Niki Beste, Julian Schwermann, Dzenis Burnic, Felix Passlack, Janni Serra, Christian Pulisic, Dario Scuderi, and Jakob Bruun Larsen, set the standard in German B-Junior football.

The next chapter was written by the boys in the U19 team. They won the highly competitive German Championship final against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Hoffenheim with a 5-3 victory. Jonas Anweiler (2), Janni Serra (2), and Felix Passlack scored the goals that secured the first A-Junior championship title in 16 years. In 1997, with coach Benjamin Hoffmann, Borussia defended the title by defeating FC Bayern Munich in front of a record 34,000 spectators at Signal Iduna Park with an 8-7 victory after a penalty shootout. The U17 team, which had lost the final to Leverkusen a year earlier, was eliminated in the 2017 semifinals against Werder Bremen following an early red card.

In the 2017/18 season, both teams qualified again for the German Championship finals. The U19 lost the semifinal to eventual champions Hertha BSC Berlin (0-4, 3-1), and the U17, coached by Sebastian Geppert, crowned a grand Bundesliga season (only one defeat) with the championship title, defeating Bayern Munich 3-2 in a match full of intensity and quality.

A year later, Borussia's U19 team surprisingly triumphed in the German Championship final against VfB Stuttgart with a 5-3 victory. After an outstanding start to the season, the 2018/19 campaign turned into a rollercoaster ride for Benjamin Hoffmann's boys. They were eliminated in the UEFA Youth League group stage by Atletico Madrid and AS Monaco, reached the semifinals in the DFB Cup, and lost to RB Leipzig on penalties. They secured second place in the Bundesliga West and then excelled in the championship playoffs, defeating Schalke 04 in the semifinals (2-2, 2-0) and overcoming a 1-3 halftime deficit to win 5-3 against DFB Cup winners VfB Stuttgart in the final in Großaspach.

However, the previously undefeated U17 team lost the "home final" at the Stadion Rote Erde to 1. FC Köln 2-3, despite having previously celebrated a 3-0 away win at 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga and easily advancing past VfL Wolfsburg to the final after winning the West German Championship.

The foundation for continuing this success story is set. The younger age-group teams (U14, U15) dominated their performance classes, and the U16 players are being systematically prepared for their next steps. The team finished the 2018/19 season as league champions in the B-Junioren Westfalenliga. "We always aim to compete for titles. This develops a winning mentality, which is essential for succeeding in professional football," describes Lars Ricken, the club's philosophy.

Until the first triumph of the youth department in 2014, there was a longer dry spell. Borussia's A-Junioren, the generation featuring talents like Mario Götze, Lasse Sobiech, Tolgay Arslan, and Daniel Ginczek, who have since become established professionals, made a brief return to the big stage in 2009 with the double in sight. However, they lost the German Championship final to Mainz 05 (coached by Thomas Tuchel and featuring striker Andre Schürrle) 1-2, and the team coached by Peter Hyballa also lost the DFB Cup final to Freiburg on penalties.

BVB's U19 teams made headlines in the 1990s, winning five consecutive championship titles with coaches Eddy Boekamp (1993/94, 1997/98) and Michael Skibbe (1994 to 1997). In the 3-2 final victory against Werder Bremen in 1994, Lars Ricken and Ibrahim Tanko made their mark. Both later joined the professional team at the age of 17, forming the legendary "Baby-Sturm" (Baby Strike Force) when Flemming Povlsen, Stephane Chapuisat, and Karlheinz Riedle were sidelined with cruciate ligament injuries for months.

In the 2-0 victory against Bayer Leverkusen a year later, players like Vladimir But and Christian Timm were part of the team. In 1996, the Black and Yellows defeated SV Waldhof Mannheim 2-0, and in 1997 (2-1 against 1860) and 1998 (on penalties against FC Bayern), they triumphed over the two major Munich clubs.

With few interruptions, the U17 team has consistently been at the top of German football. Consequently, they lead the "All-Time Table" of the B-Junioren Bundesliga West ahead of Leverkusen and Schalke 04. They won their first championship title in 1984, defeating Munich 1860 2-1 in front of 11,000 spectators at the Westfalenstadion. Under coach Peter Wongrowitz, they reached the final five times, celebrating three victories (1993 against Carl Zeiss Jena 5-1, 1996 against 1. FC Saarbrücken 6-1, 1998 against VfB Stuttgart on penalties). They suffered defeats in 1999 against VfB Stuttgart (1-3) and in 2001 (with David Odonkor, Markus Brzenska, and Sahr Senesie) against FC Bayern (0-4).

It wasn't until 2006 that the B-Junioren team qualified for another German Championship final (0-2 against 1860 Munich). Although BVB had strong teams in the past, featuring players like Nuri Sahin, Marco Reus, Antonio Rüdiger, and Marc Andre Kruska, the club had to wait five years for another final appearance. This was followed by final defeats to FC Bayern Munich (2007) and TSG Hoffenheim (2008). Then came the 1998 generation, who set a new era with four consecutive championships (two in U17 and two in U19).

Wilfried Wittke