Julien Duranville

Julien Duranville has been with Borussia Dortmund since January 2023. The Belgian first came into contact with the club in autumn 2014: when Black & Yellows visited RSC Anderlecht in the Champions League, the then eight-year-old was a mascot. Since then, he has followed BVB closely and watched with interest as top talents such as Ousmane Dembélé and Jadon Sancho took a big step forward in their sporting development in Dortmund. This reinforced his desire to follow the same path.

"I think it's fantastic how young players are developed here. I was a fan of Ousmane Dembélé even as a little boy. I love the way he plays football and back then I really wanted to know about the club he played for. That's how I first became aware of BVB. The final argument was Jadon Sancho. He's a great footballer and, like Dembélé and me, he's at home on the wing," he told the member magazine BORUSSIA (April 2023 issue).

On Matchday 34 of the 2022/23 season, he made his Bundesliga debut as a substitute in the home game against Mainz. Historically, only Youssoufa Moukoko and Nuri Sahin were younger when they made their first appearances for BVB. He scored his first competitive goal for Borussia Dortmund as a substitute in the first round of the 2024/25 DFB-Pokal against Phönix Lübeck (final score 4-1). In the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League against Barcelona, he came off the bench to set up Guirassy's third goal in BVB's 3-1 win.

He made 12 of his first 15 Bundesliga appearances as a substitute. Julien Duranville, whose father is from Liège, with roots in Martinique, and whose mother is from Etterbeek, with roots in Congo, was registered with the RSC Anderlecht youth academy at the age of six. The winger played six games in the Jupiler Pro League for 34-time Belgian champions RSC Anderlecht, making his debut 17 days after his 16th birthday. He scored his first goal in his second game, firing from the left corner of the penalty area into the near corner of the net. He is a fast and tricky forward – so fast and so tricky that they call him ‘L'Éclair’ (‘the flash’) at home. Many clubs were interested in him, but BVB won the race to sign him. Julien Duranville is currently a member of Belgium's U21 and senior national teams.

He made his debut for his country's U21 team in March 2024, and six months later, then national coach Domenico Tedesco called him up to the senior squad. He was just 18 years and four months old when he made his international debut on 8 September 2024 (a 3-1 win in Israel).