Is Marcel Sabitzer the playmaker Dortmund have been looking for?
The Austrian international arrives at his new club with the unenviable task of replacing Jude Bellingham and supporting Julian Brandt in the middle of the pitch.
A few weeks ago Borussia Dortmund were in a bit of a pickle. Having already cashed in on Jude Bellingham, the Bundesliga club were seemingly struggling to put together an appropriate plan of action for how to replace the England international. Sure, Felix Nmecha had been plucked from Wolfsburg, but the hard job of finding another multi-faceted box-to-box midfielder for a reasonable amount of money was proving difficult.
Edson Álvarez had come and gone, whispers of a move for Leon Goretzka surfaced ever so briefly and there was even scandalous talk of former Schalke star Weston McKennie making the move to the Westfalenstadion. Newspapers were pulling names out of thin air. But, in the end, Dortmund seemingly knew what they were doing and ended up pulling off a mightily impressive transfer on Monday afternoon.
Indeed, following a late flurry of reports in Germany, Dortmund confirmed the signing of Bayern Munich midfielder Marcel Sabitzer on a four-year contract and for a modest fee of €19 million. Rescued from being routinely sacrificed at the Bavarian alter to Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich, the Austrian international now makes the move to Dortmund in desperate need of game time and a bit of TLC. And in many ways he could prove to be an excellent signing for Edin Terzic’s side.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Gegenpressing Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.