The numbers behind Borussia Dortmund’s transfer strategy – and how they compare to the rest of Europe
By Sean Findlay
Salary comparisons
Another important factor is how much of that revenue the club is willing or able to spend on players’ salaries. In this category, Borussia Dortmund (65%) is at the higher end of the European top clubs, while a far cry from the 111% of Paris Saint-Germain. In percentage, the Westfalen are outspending clubs like Bayern Munich (53%), Arsenal (58%) and are on eye-level with Manchester United (66%).
I’m not an accountant but spending 111% on players wages doesn’t seem to be a sustainable business model for Borussia Dortmund. So, it’s pretty important to spend those 65% as wisely as possible.
Sebastian Kehl has already declared that future contracts will be more performance based like they were back in the Klopp era. Fortunately for Nico Schulz, those changes will only affect new deals, but it makes you wonder how much money he would owe the club if his contract was performance based.
Currently, Marco Reus is Borussia Dortmund’s top earner at around $210,000 per week. Which is a lot of money, but how does that compare to top earners at clubs that might be bidding for a player like Jude Bellingham? Kylian Mbappé at $1.9m per week is PSG’s highest paid player, Kevin de Bruyne makes about $485,000 each week at Manchester City and Eden Hazard is paid $460,000 weekly.
Former Dortmund youngsters Ousmane Dembélé, Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland all agreed to deals upwards of $400,000 with their new clubs.
So it’s understandably very difficult to keep those players at BVB unless they have special bond to the city and the club like Marco Reus.
Next. Borussia Dortmund’s All-Time Best XI. dark
Borussia Dortmund fans can only hope that the club will be able to use its budget more efficiently and convince top players to stay at least a bit longer than in recent history. Another way to look at this is to recognize that those transfers will always be an important source of income for the club and hopefully help it grow even bigger over the next years and decades.