Borussia Dortmund are launching young guns on the international stage like there's no tomorrow. Just this year alone, five of their players made their national teams debuts, with Mathis Albert being the latest after earning his first cap with the USMNT on Saturday.
The 17-year-old was called up to Mauricio Pochettino's squad for their autumn fixtures and made his debut for the Stars and Stripes after replacing former BVB ace Giovani Reyna in the 61st minute as one of the youngest to ever debut for the USMNT this century.
A year of international firsts
Dortmund have seen many of their players make their international bow while playing for them, but 2026 has been special by all accounts. Because in no other calendar year has the team seen more first-team players get their first caps for their national teams.
Carney Chukwuemeka opened the floodgates with his Austria debut, after having switched allegiance from England. In June, all three of BVB's Italian contingent - Samuele Inacio, Luca Reggiani and Filippo Mane - made their first appearances for the Azzurri.
Interim manager Silvio Baldini had summoned an experimental squad full of young talents, among whom were three of Dortmund's young guns. While Inacio and Mane earned their first Italy cap on 4 June against Luxembourg, Reggiani came on against Greece, four days later, although his debut ended within minutes after getting sent off in the fixture.
On Saturday, Albert continued the prolific run of young players making their international debuts with his first appearance for the USMNT and could be in line for his second later today when they face Chile.
Big names who made international debuts as BVB players
Among the earliest names is Nuri Sahin, one of the club's long-term servants. Just two months into his BVB tenure in 2005, he earned a call-up with Turkey's national team, while Neven Subotic made his Serbian debut in March 2009.
Given their long history of German players, Dortmund have produced the most debutants for Die Mannschaft with 11, including former skipper Matts Hummels (May 2010) and attacker Mario Gotze (November 2010), who scored Germany's World Cup-winning goal against Argentina in the 2014 finals.
Before Albert, Christian Pulisic and Giovani Reyna had also made their international debuts with the USMNT (March 2016 and November 2020 respectively) while playing for Dortmund, whereas Jadon Sancho's prolific run saw him break into England's national team set-up in October 2018. Jude Bellingham followed suit two years later.
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