Borussia Dortmund want to take the next step after their best Bundesliga season in seven years but will have to start the campaign without centre back Nico Schlotterbeck who will remain sidelined until at at least late September.
Schlotterbeck suffered an ankle injury at the World Cup playing for Germany, and managing director Lars Ricken said as the squad gathered for pre-season training on Tuesday that more patience is required.
“It will take a few more weeks. We have to say that honestly. Whether that will be before or after the first international break, we’ll see how the healing progresses,” Ricken told reporters.
The first international break of the new season is at the end of September.
Dortmund were a distant second behind Bayern Munich last term but their points tally of 73 was the best since 2019 as coach Niko Kovač has steadied the ship after a difficult 2024-25 campaign in which they came fourth.
“Of course we want to take the next step now,” Ricken said, but he would not “call for the title.
“I’m a fan of flexible targets. We’ve got our first training session today, and by no means is everyone here yet. We’ll discuss the targets with the team,” he said.
Dortmund last won the league in 2012 as part of a domestic double, then under coach Jürgen Klopp who is now set to take over the German national team.
But with Schlotterbeck missing the first weeks injured and captain Emre Can out even longer after his anterior cruciate ligament rupture, it leaves the Black and Yellows short of numbers.
New sporting director Ole Book had hoped to be able to present two established attacking players at the start of training.
But so far, the club have signed prospects Kaua Prates, 18, from Brazil, Justin Lerma, 18, from Ecuador and centre back Joane Gadou, 19, from RB Salzburg.
“We are taking the time so that in the end we sign the players who will also improve us,” Ricken said.
“We want to make one, two, three really good signings. But we want to make the right signings. Not just any signings that might win us some short-term praise, only for us to suddenly find ourselves wondering in November: ‘Were those really the right ones?’
According to multiple media reports, Dortmund are interested in Konstantinos Karetsas, also 18, from Genk in Belgium.
The attacking talent could replace Julian Brandt, who has not yet found a new club after this Dortmund deal ended.
Defender Niklas Süler has ended his career while the planned sale of Karim Adeyemi to Barcelona could accelerate Dortmund’s transfer activities.
“I’m convinced that by the end of the transfer window, we’ll have a squad that’s better and stronger than last season’s,” Ricken said.
But Ricken also said that last year’s signings Jobe Bellingham, Carney Chukwuemeka and Fábio Silva must deliver: “I believe they will be better and that is also what we expect, that they take the next step.”
Dortmund start their competitive season with the Franz Beckenbauer Super Cup against double winners Bayern on August 22. They host SV Hamburg in their Bundesliga opener a week later.
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