Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc speaks out against accusations from PSG
Borussia Dortmund’s Michael Zorc spoke out after Leonardo accused German teams of some questionable behavior in recruiting french prospects.
Borussia Dortmund along with Bayern Munich and Leipzig were accused of unfairly targeting younger french players by PSG sporting director Leonardo. This comes after Bayern Munich signed PSG youngster Tanguy Kouassai Kouassi on a free transfer this summer. Leonardo is not happy with how he views the German clubs approaching young French players and feels the country needs to change some regulations in order to protect themselves.
"“They call parents, friends, family members or the player themselves. At 15 or 16 years old, the young talents get their heads turned. Maybe the rules should be changed to protect the French clubs.” – Leonardo"
Having heard this, Michael Zorc was not pleased with the comments and felt obligated to clarify the situation. Although not someone who addresses rumors or such things in the media, because Dortmund were named directly he felt responsible. Speaking to BILD, Zorc said:
"“It is usually the other way around than he depicts it. We are actively addressed by the families and agents from France because they often see a better chance of first-team football and a higher development potential of the talented young players,” – Michael Zorc"
Zorc is right, the reason these young French players are leaving is for the opportunity for first team action in quite frankly a better league. Dan-Axel Zagadou and Christopher Nkunku have both become regular first team starters for both Leipzig and Dortmund, something that easily might not be the case if they stayed at PSG.
Leonardo isn’t speaking about French players in general he is purely speaking about PSG players who have been lured away in recent seasons. Kouassi with Bayern, Zagadou with Dortmund, Nkunku who moved to Leipzig, and Moussa Diaby who is excelling at Leverkusen.
And it is not only the Bundesliga, PSG have also lost a number of other youngsters on free transfers to clubs in France, Italy and England.
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No other french clubs are speaking up with this issue, it is just one high profile club who is having trouble keeping young players. Instead of complaining about other teams taking young stars by giving them opportunity, PSG should focus on giving those players opportunity themselves if they want to keep hold of them.