Despite protests and concerns from some fans, soccer runners-up Borussia Dortmund made Felix Nmecha’s commitment perfect.
BVB announced this on Monday evening (July 3rd, 2023). The international comes to Dortmund from Bundesliga competitor VfL Wolfsburg, with whom he still had a contract until 2025. There he will receive a working paper until 2028.
The Dortmunders were silent about the exact change modalities. According to media reports, Nmecha (22 years) will probably cost BVB around 30 million euros including bonuses.
He is the second player signed by BVB for the next attempt in the title race. At the beginning of June, Dortmund had the Free transfer of Algerian left-back Ramy Bensebaini from Borussia Mönchengladbach confirmed.
Criticism from parts of the BVB fans on the Nmecha transfer
In the run-up to the Nmecha transfer, there were discussions and a protest at the office. The strictly religious Christian had shared posts on his Instagram profile that were classified as homophobic and anti-queer. He later contradicted the relevant allegations in a longer post.
Watzke and Lunow are aware of the criticism
“We are aware,” said managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke and club president Reinhold Lunow on the BVB website, “that the upcoming transfer has also caused criticism in the past few days due to two Internet postings that Felix shared”.
It was therefore important to those responsible to “talk to the player intensively about his beliefs and values”. Nmecha is “very young, his religion is deeply rooted in him and he is – like all of us – certainly not perfect”.
Nmecha should enrich midfield offensively and defensively
“But in intensive discussions he absolutely convinced us that he has no transphobic or homophobic ideas,” affirmed Watzke and Lunow: “Felix himself emphasized that he respects and loves all people, regardless of their skin color, religion or religion sexual orientation.”
Nmecha himself said: “I hope that the fans will give me the chance to get to know each other and then see that I’m a hopefully great person.”
Sportingly, BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl was happy about the reinforcement. “Felix Nmecha is a fast, technically skilled and physically strong player who will enhance our midfield both offensively and defensively with his profile,” said Kehl.
