Report: Cole Campbell is the most likely Borussia Dortmund academy product to make it as a professional

With Borussia Dortmund currently getting through what is likely their most intense injury crisis of the last couple of seasons, the club has had to fill the gaps where possible with players still available to them, including via the academy and second team. Dortmund has been hit quite hard out wide in particular, with both Karim Adeyemi and Julien Duranville still on the sidelines.

The silver lining in all of this has been that highly-rated academy talent Cole Campbell has been able to make his senior debut. The American international has been touted for stardom on more than one occasion, and according to a report from Kicker, he is the most likely of Dortmund’s current crop to make the jump to the senior team a more permanent one.

The report, which also talks about players such as Ayman Azhil (currently of BVB II), Almugera Kabar (who also made his senior debut this season) Yannik Lührs, Filippo Mané, and Jordi Paulina, gives Campbell high praise, putting him a step ahead of his aforementioned peers. With minutes starting to trickle in for the young attacker, it will be up to him to shine where he can and make an impression on Şahin and the club's higher-ups.

Alongside Campbell, Kabar and Mané are highlighted as strong candidates to become first-team options, with the former showing glimpses of what he is capable of (barring the red card in the league, which in no way should he take the brunt of the blame for), while the latter, despite being regarded as a greater talent than Hendry Blank, still needing time on the pitch to prove he can reach his true potential.

It will be minutes on the pitch that all of these players need for them to really show they can be mainstays in the starting 11 of the not-so-distant future. Whilst Dortmund under new head of youth development Thomas Broich has signaled strong intent to make young players reaching the first team a focal point of the club’s broader strategy, this has yet to fully develop under Şahin. It will be up to the club as a whole to promote and emphasize the need for the players to get minutes in order for them to succeed in the long run at the club, with Şahin having to give these players chances in situations that don’t only include injury crises.