June: Sauerland lives his dream, Reus’ dream is shattered

The 16-year-old opened the scoring in the 39th minute after good work from Jonas Arweiler before he added a second shortly before the break. Leipzig pulled one back after the interval but Hannes Wolf’s team held on to win the match and the title. “The lads went into every challenge. We are very proud of them,” said Lars Ricken, BVB’s youth coordinator, while Hannes Wolf stated, “The team’s display in the final was outstanding, especially in the first half.”

For the 40th year, the readers of German football magazine Kicker picked their most popular players in the Bundesliga. The categories on the ballot were “goalkeeper”, “defender”, “midfielder”, “striker”, “newcomer” and “coach”, with five of the six winners coming from Dortmund!

According to the readers of Kicker, Jürgen Klopp was the most popular coach and Erik Durm the “newcomer” of the year, while Robert Lewandowski was named top striker for the second year in a row. Mats Hummels was the most popular defender, and Marco Reus the runaway winner in the midfielder category, raking in 31 percent of the votes to the runner-up’s six. Among the goalkeepers, last year’s winner Roman Weidenfeller finished second to Manuel Neuer.

“The result of this year’s ballot clearly shows that even without winning a title the Dortmund players are more popular than ever,” said Kicker. “Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is the only non-Borusse to win a category. Otherwise it is all black and yellow. Mats Hummels was ranked first among defenders for the fourth time in the last five years.”

Marco Reus, however, was not able to enjoy his “landslide” victore in the poll after picking up an ankle injury in Germany’s penultimate World Cup warm-up game against Armenia. Reus got his boot stuck in the pitch and rolled over his ankle, suffering a partial ligament tear and sprained ankle. “A dream’s been shattered,” said the 25-year-old after learning the extent of the injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.