German giants Borussia Dortmund have been making some serious early noise in the summer transfer window. Over the last 36 hours alone, Dortmund have spent nearly £70million as they look to add some extra firepower for next season. The players they’ve brought onside are Nico Schulz (£22m), Thorgan Hazard (£24m) and Julian Brandt (£22m) .
Nico Schulz
Schulz is German left-back who’s just enjoyed one of his best seasons in professional football at Hoffenheim. After coming through the ranks at Hertha Berlin, Schulz moved on to Borussia Moenchengladbach in August 2015. He would spend two years there before moving on to Hoffenheim in July 2017.
The left-back can play all up and down the left hand side of the pitch and this season has provided one goal and six assists for his team. Schulz started 85% of all Hoffenheim league games this season. However, with Raphael Guerreiro still at the club, it remains to be seen how much involvement Schulz will have next season.
One thing of note this season at Dortmund this season been Lucien Favre’s decision to Guerreiro as a winger more than he has as a full-back – it could be that we see both of them in the same side. Either way, it’s a very decent signing for Dortmund and will definitely help improve the squad.
Thorgan Hazard Transfer window signing
Maybe not the most famous Hazard on the planet, but the 26-year-old is certainly not far away from his older brother. Like Eden, he plays mainly as a left-winger but can also play on the right, as well as in the number ten role behind the striker. As have all of the (adult) Hazard brothers so far, Thorgan played for Chelsea until 2015.
Unlike Eden however, he failed to make any sort of an impact in the first team and left to find pastures new in Germany with Borussia Moenchengladbach. He’s spent the last four seasons playing for ‘Gladbach, scoring 30 goals in 141 appearances.
Thorgan comes from an incredibly talented family as he as well as each one of his three brothers have followed in their parents footsteps to become footballers. The boys’ parents Thierry and Carine were both footballers as Thierry played semi-professionally in the Belgian second division while Carine played in the Belgian Women’s first division until her pregnancy with Eden.
As we know, Thorgan is now a Dortmund player, Eden plays for Chelsea (for now), Kylian plays for Belgian Pro League side Cercle Brugge and youngest brother Ethan plays for the youth team of AFC Tubize.
With the flair and the raw attacking ability that he will bring to the team, Dortmund have one hell of a player on their hands – at a very fair price too (£24m). Considering all of the attacking options Dortmund have, it’s not certain that Hazard will play every minute of every game, but he’s a brilliant option to have in your squad.
Julian Brandt
Yesterday, I wrote a story about Kai Havertz and in it, I mentioned how securing Champions League football could go a long way towards helping Leverkusen keep hold of their star players. Within 24 hours of posting that article, Dortmund went and proved that regardless of Champions League football, the allure of the top sides is sometimes too much to resist.
At 23-years-old, Julian Brandt has played his entire professional career so far in Leverkusen. The German has represented his national side at every youth level from U15 upwards and has already logged 24 caps for the senior side. In the league this season, Brandt provided 7 goals and 11 assists for his team in Bundesliga, having a direct hand in 30% of the teams goals.
Brandt is expected to be seen as a direct replacement for the outgoing Christian Pulisic who has moved to Chelsea following the January agreement. Alongside Jadon Sancho, Thorgan Hazard, and Marco Reus, it’s going to be difficult for Dortmund’s Bundesliga rivals to stop them next season.
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