Borussia Dortmund started the training camp in Bad Ragaz on Friday with almost 30 professionals.
The finishing touches for the coming season are to take place in the Swiss health resort, in which the Bundesliga club, which has been strengthened for a good 85 million euros so far, wants to stand up to the series champions FC Bayern Munich more.
The newcomers Sébastien Haller (Amsterdam), Niklas Süle (Munich), Nico Schlotterbeck (Freiburg), Karim Adeyemi (Salzburg) and Salih Özcan (Cologne), who only started preparing at the beginning of the week, have the greatest need to catch up. This also applies to BVB internationals such as Jude Bellingham, Julian Brandt, Thomas Meunier and Raphael Guerreiro.
“These are also the guys who are supposed to play a large part of the season. So far it has felt a bit like a football camp,” commented coach Edin Terzic, referring to the past few weeks, in which he played with a player mainly from the U23 Team filled core cadre had to work.
BVB flies without new signing Özcan
“Time is running. We want to make the best use of every day to get the boys ready to last the whole season and play every three days from September,” said Marco Rose’s successor.
With the return of the newcomers and the national players from vacation, the level of training has increased noticeably, according to defender Mats Hummels: “The big competition at BVB has opened up. Now I hope that it will bring us to a top level in all team positions . A lot of foundations for a successful season are always laid in the training camp.”
When departing from Dortmund Airport, midfielder Özcan was absent, who, according to medical examinations, should travel quickly. On the other hand, there were also supposed change candidates such as Nico Schulz, Manuel Akanji, Thorgan Hazard and Raphael Guerreiro. Before returning to Dortmund on July 23, BVB will play two friendly games against the Spanish first division side FC Valencia (July 18) and FC Villarreal (July 22) in nearby Altach (Austria).