It's a rather rare occurrence for a professional footballer who has left a club only one and a half years after joining to want to bid the fans farewell in person. But it's even more remarkable for the footballer in question to travel all the way from Spain for the occasion.

So it was unsurprisingly a highly emotional moment when, in the minutes leading up to kick-off against Salzburg, Marc Bartra appeared in front of the South Stand to bid farewell to Borussia Dortmund and its fans. The Spain international returned to his homeland over the winter break, joining Real Betis, where he has started all six league games since. The BVB fans gave a standing ovation to a man who was the main victim in the perfidious attack on the team bus almost one year ago and who, by returning to play in the country of his birth, is hoping to put the memories of that terrible moment behind him. "I absolutely wanted to say a personal goodbye to the fantastic fans here in Dortmund. Together we went through and overcame a lot," said Bartra, who joined stadium announcer Norbert Dickel in reading out the line-up as the players came out.

"I'm very happy and also a little proud that Marc Bartra, despite his commitments for his new employer Real Betis, accepted our invitation to come to Dortmund," said BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke. "It was an honour for us to officially bid farewell to Marc. We would like to thank him for his commitment, his solidarity, his friendliness and his authenticity. But above all, for the fact that he showed like almost no other how quickly integration can work and that even in the often short-lived business of professional football in the modern era, one can still be completely devoted to a club. Even though Marc only played for BVB for one and a half years, he is a profoundly worthy ambassador of our club. And he will always remain so." (br)