SPECIAL FEATURE
do with a sixth of Manchester United and
Real Madrid’s income streams.
Faced with this most uneven of playing
fields, the movers and shakers at Porto,
for example, have long been advocates
of what is best termed the “buy low, sell
high” model, picking up talented foreign
youngsters – mainly from South America- at minimal cost, smoothing off the
rough edges and then selling them a
few years down the line for a substantial
profit. Since 2010, Porto have generated
player sales of more than €548m, and
over the same period have only once
recorded a negative net-transfer spend.
Not for nothing are Porto considered
the deans of the transfer dividend. After
buying Colombian striker Radamel Falcao
from River Plate in 2005 for €5.43m,
they sold him two years later to Atletico
Madrid for €40m. His
compatriot, midfielder
James Rodriguez, who
cost €7m from Argentinian
side Banfield in 2010,
would subsequently be
traded to Monaco in aone of creativity and resourcefulness.
These clubs have to brainstorm their
way forward.
Even teams who regularly play in
the aristocratic playground that is the
Champions League have to face an
economic reality: they are not and
probably never will be at the top of
football’s food chain.
While they are anything but also-rans,
Lyon’s operational budget of €289m
is dwarfed by PSG’s €500m. Borussia
Dortmund, the number two force in the
Bundesliga, are around €250m shy
of the all-powerful Bayern Munich in
the turnover stakes. Twice Champions
League winners, Porto have to makeW
e don’t buy stars, we
develop them,” says
Dortmund youth
department chief Lars
Ricken, a long-serving midfielder for the
club who scored in their 1997 Champions
League Final victory against Juventus.
“It’s not a clever-clever phrase. We’ve
proved it with first-team players like
[Mario] Gotze, [Christian] Pulisic and
[Jacob] Bruun Larsen.
“With us there’s an actual, tangible
route from the youth team to the pros.”
In a not-too distant past, Dortmund
had quite different recruitment principles.
In the mid-1990s they spent lavishly on
a clutch of Serie-A based stars: stopper
Jurgen Kohler, wing-back Stefan Reuter,
libero Matthias Sammer, playmaker Andy
Moller and striker Kalle Riedle. Then, in
the first few years of the new millennium,
they seemed only to have eyes for jaded
journeymen. But all was to change in
2005 when they teetered on the brink of
bankruptcy, undone by financial profligacy
and a lack of Champions League action.
A more sustainable
method of team-building
had to be found and so the
Ruhr version of “Moneyball”
was born. Find a clutch of
relatively undervalued
youngsters, offer regular
first-team opportunities and
watch their marketability
soar. Sell on for a fortune,
rinse and repeat.
Over the last couple
of years alone, Dortmund
have banked close to
€370m in player sales,
with most of the treasure
trove attributable to the
off-loading of Ousmane
Dembele, Pierre-Emerick
Aubameyang and Pulisic,who will link up with Chelsea next term.
Dortmund’s return on these three
transactions is a mouth-watering €219.7m.
However, Dortmund’s espousal of
youthful talent is not merely a response
to a latter-day economic meltdown. It
also fits like a glove with the mentality
of their supporters and the Ruhr region
as a whole. Younger players generally
bring verve, enthusiasm and daring to
the table – and this is exactly the sort
of football that the Westfalenstadion
faithful demands.
The Dortmund scouting operation,
headed by Markus Pilawa, is divided
into three phases. In the 12-15 age
group the club mainly prospect in the
Ruhr. The net is widened for 16-19-year-
olds to Germany and the EU. And for
those over 19 the search goes worldwide.
Increasingly, Dortmund are looking to
bring in dissatisfied tyros at big European
clubs; the golden boys who know they
are good but feel thwarted in their first-
team ambitions.
Back in 2017, the Black-and-Yellows
caused a stir when they lured boy-
wonder winger Jadon Sancho away
from Manchester City and last year they
drew water from the same type of well,
snapping up highly rated Barcelona
attacking midfielder Sergio Gomez.“Ousmane Dembele
bought €15m from Rennes
sold €120m to Barcelona
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
bought €13m from Saint-Eitenne
sold €63.75m to Arsenal
Christian Pulisic
€0m
sold €64m to Chelsea
Mario Gotze
€0m
sold €37m to Bayern Munich
(re-signed for €22m)Plan...Porto’s Jorge
Nuno Pinto da CostaClubs without billionaire or oligarch backing
have to cut their cloth accordingly and an
entirely different approach is required, one
of creativity and resourcefulnessBORUSSIA DORTMUND
Profitable...
Ousmane DembeleHead of ops...
Markus Pilawa