Match Report
Borussia's new U19s: extremely young and highly talented
"Extremely young and highly talented," says Tullberg about the team. Goalkeeper Aaron Held and outfield players Anas Mahjoubi, Valon Cena, Jonas Feddersen, Oliwer Blaszczyk, Tim Degener, Nick Cherny, Taycan Ectibasi, Thierry Tazemeta and Diego Ngambia have been promoted to the U19s from the team that won the German U17 Championship in the previous season. Elias Benkara, Tyler Meiser and Ousmane Diallo, who had previously moved back and forth between the U17s and U19s, will also join the extended squad, as will Luca Reggiani and Mussa Kaba.
Robin Lisewski, Almugera Kabar, Cole Campbell, Nico Adamczyk, William Rashidi, Alex Niziolek as well as Luke Rahmann and Moussa Soumah, who had little to no playing time due to long-term injuries, remain from last year's squad. Mike Tullberg, who is entering his fifth year as U19 head coach, welcomed striker Pharell Kegni from 1. FC Nürnberg as a new signing. The future of Paris Brunner remains unclear. Charles Herrmann and U17 champions Fritz Fleck and Leon Wörsdörfer have left BVB to play for Borussia Mönchengladbach.
"We have to find each other as a group, grow together and find a good team spirit," says Mike Tullberg, describing the aim of the five-week preparation period. He wants to lay the foundations for this in a ten-day training camp from 17 to 27 August in Brixen in the Kitzbühel Alps. To this end, he will forgo the traditional participation in the Bundesliga Cup in Schwäbisch Hall. The test match programme includes duels with Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich.
The most important task for the coaching team is the training and individual development of talented players, emphasises Mike Tullberg. Kjell Wätjen, who would still be eligible to play for the U19s, will be part of the extended professional squad for the 2024/25 season. Like Filippo Mane and Danylo Krevsun, who have been promoted to the U23s, he will strengthen BVB's Youth League squad. U17 World Cup winner Almugera Kabar and attacker Cole Campbell will spend part of this summer preparing with the first team.
Tullberg: "We want to measure ourselves against the best"
The new DFB youth league starts on 3 August. The Borussia Dortmund U19s will face FC Schalke 04, Fortuna Düsseldorf, MSV Duisburg, RW Essen, Preußen Münster, SV Meppen and TSV Meerbusch. Mike Tullberg is not yet happy with this reform of the leagues, which the DFB has initiated in order to improve the promotion of young talent: "With all due respect to our opponents, I'm not seeing evenly-matched challenges like in the previous Bundesliga West, when we faced 1. FC Köln, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen or VfL Bochum, which pushed our youngsters to their limits."
The sporting goal is therefore to qualify for the main round in League A, which is reached by the top three teams in the eight preliminary round groups, "because we want to compete with the best." The U19s will have this opportunity in the DFB-Pokal, which has been expanded to 64 teams, as well as in the newly organised UEFA Youth League, in which they will face six different opponents in three home and three away matches - in parallel with the first team in the Champions League.
"I'm looking forward to the new team and the new season," said Mike Tullberg, who wants to add another chapter to his previous success story with the A-Juniors (German champions in 2022, three times in the final of the German championship, 2022 in the DFB Cup final, three consecutive West German champions, two times in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Youth League).
(wiwi)