Response to report
©IMAGO
This article was first published on March 5th, 2026 and was updated on Friday with statements from Lars Ricken.
Julian Ryerson has become an indispensable regular player at Borussia Dortmund and is once again a candidate for an upgrade in the upcoming market value update. As the “Bild” newspaper reported on Thursday, the Black and Yellows are still considering selling the right-back in the summer if an interested party is willing to pay 30 million euros. Sports director Lars Ricken now clearly contradicted this information.
“Complete nonsense,” said Ricken about Dortmund’s supposed sales plan in a “WAZ” interview. “Julian is an absolute top performer, a mentality monster who also poses an incredible threat to our standard situations with his quality. We have no intention of giving him up at all. Especially not for such a relatively small sum considering his abilities,” emphasized Ricken. 30 million euros would only be around 10 million above Ryerson’s current market value. The next update of the Bundesliga players is due on March 20th.
Ricken about CL exit: “We don’t have to sell players because of that”
BVB transferred 5 million euros to Union Berlin in January 2023 and gave the 28-year-old Norwegian a contract until 2028 in October 2024. This does not contain an exit clause. Ricken denied that income from player sales was unavoidable due to the early exit from the Champions League. He explained: “The damage to our sporting reputation is significantly greater than the financial one. It is totally annoying and painful that we ruined the result this year. But we have worked so seriously and responsibly in recent years that it is not about the economic stability of the club. The budget will hardly change. We therefore do not have to sell players.”
With eleven assists, Ryerson is the best provider in the Bundesliga behind the Bayern duo Michael Olise (18) and Luis Díaz (13), and he has 14 assists across all competitions. It does not seem to be the case that BVB could now be looking to convert the good performances this season and the interest from clubs such as Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Newcastle United and Liverpool FC into money. Other open personnel details in the squad do not change this.
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 | J. Ryerson |
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Both central defender Nico Schlotterbeck and captain Emre Can are expected to extend their contracts in Dortmund, and it is also unclear what will happen to midfield engine Felix Nmecha and his Premier League ambitions. Sports director Sebastian Kehl admitted after the defeat in the Champions League intermediate round at Atalanta Bergamo: “The exit doesn’t mean anything good at first. We had planned to progress and this income for the round of 16.”
