Sebastian Kehl: “Winning titles is incredibly important” for Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl spoke on a number of important topics surrounding the club in the lead up to the final match day of the season, including the importance of winning titles for BVB.

With one of Borussia Dortmund’s most era-defining games about to take place this Saturday, Sebastian Kehl spoke in a media round about some of the more important matters that have occupied the club in the last week. Top of that list was Mats Hummels signing a new one year extension on his current deal, tying him to the club until the summer of 2024. Kehl spoke of the player in glowing terms, clearly underlining how happy the club are to have the former German international in their ranks for another year:

"“We are very happy that we were able to extend this week with Mats. We have been talking to each other for several weeks and I know that Mats has also been pondering for a very long time…However, we were able to communicate at very short notice and give out the happy news, which will hopefully give us another push for the weekend. Another year with Mats Hummels is a good year for Borussia Dortmund.”"

Hummels has indeed been one of BVB’s standout performers this season, putting in defensive displays that provided flashbacks to the tasteful defender he became during his first stint with the club. The conversation also touched upon Marco Reus and how important this title would be to him. The Bundesliga title would be a nice crown jewel to cap off a career of trials and tribulation for Dortmund’s captain, and an extremely justified reward for his years of loyalty and service to the club.

Of course, the importance of winning the title extends beyond Marco Reus, as Kehl underlined in no uncertain terms:

"“The charisma of Borussia Dortmund is great. But winning titles is incredibly important for a club. We did that a few times with the DFB-Pokal. It would mean something to break through this dominance of the Bavarians after so many years, also to show that we are not only second, but can also become German champions.”"

The importance of this title for Borussia Dortmund cannot be emphasized enough. Not only would this break the dominance of Bayern Munich over the league, it would set a new standard for the club as a whole. This year in particular has shown that Bayern have cracks in their armor; cracks that can be capitalized on by Die Schwarzgelben.

It’s also an extreme certainty that Bayern will go into the summer looking to rebuild and come back stronger than ever. Dortmund must work to not only win this title, but keep the momentum going into the following season(s) by recruiting key figures like they did with Gregor Kobel and Niklas Süle in recent years. They also need to maintain an extremely high standard in terms of player performances so that their potential victory on Saturday is not followed by yet another decade of domination at the hands of Bavaria.