From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
102 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Rafinha
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.56 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Yan Couto
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market14 Sep 2026
The Emre Can talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Borussia Dortmund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Karim Adeyemi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match5 Sep 2026
Union Berlin left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 14. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rafinha gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Borussia Dortmund, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Felix Nmecha
Defensive actions: 33. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Shots: 17. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Philippe Coutinho was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fábio Silva, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Borussia Dortmund will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Borussia Dortmund will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Heidenheim will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Felix Nmecha was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Silas Ostrzinski has come up in conversations Borussia Dortmund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market24 Aug 2026
He is 16, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market24 Aug 2026
Philipp Köhler is 16, and Borussia Dortmund have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Nico Schlotterbeck keeps the shirt for now, at Borussia Dortmund's convenience rather than his own.
Market24 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: SC Freiburg still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Borussia Dortmund's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
140 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Mathias Pereira Lage arrives from St. Pauli with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Emre Can talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Borussia Dortmund know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Dortmund this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Karim Adeyemi's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filippo Mané, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Rafinha is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Felix Nmecha wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Dortmund hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nico Schlotterbeck and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Serhou Guirassy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Silas Ostrzinski has come up in conversations Borussia Dortmund were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.