Barcelona, Poland and Man Utd transfer gossip columns: Where are Dortmund’s 2013 heroes now?

Borussia Dortmund’s showdown with Real Madrid in the Champions League final this weekend takes the Bundesliga club back to the scene of their heartbreak at the same stage of the competition in 2013.

It was at Wembley Stadium 11 years ago that Jurgen Klopp’s BVB boys were beaten 2-1 by a Treble-chasing Bayern Munich side that included Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Toni Kroos.

Current Dortmund boss Edin Terzic will be hoping to go one better this time around by scoring an upset against Carlo Ancelotti and the 14-time champions of Europe – in a match with an intriguing subplot involving the managers’ ages.

A lot has changed for the Black and Yellows since their narrow loss to Bayern more than a decade ago, with just two players from that side currently at the club. Here’s what Dortmund’s 2013 Champions League finalists have been up to over the last 11 years.

Goalkeeper – Roman Weidenfeller

A veteran of more than 450 games across 16 seasons with Dortmund, Weidenfeller retired in 2018 at the age of 37. The vastly experienced goalkeeper only ever accumulated five senior caps for Germany, but he was part of the 2014 World Cup-winning squad, backing up Manuel Neuer.

Since hanging up his gloves, Weidenfeller has been working as an ambassador for Dortmund.

Right-back – Lukasz Piszczek

An athletic and well-rounded full-back, Piszczek joined Dortmund from Hertha Berlin and was a mainstay of Klopp’s back-to-back title-winning BVB sides. Regarded as one of the best right-backs in the Bundesliga for much of his time at Signal Iduna Park, the Pole remained with the club until 2021.

He left to sign for his hometown club, Goczalkowice-Zdroj, in the fourth tier of Polish football. Still going strong at 38, he is currently their player-manager.

Centre-back – Neven Subotic

A firm Klopp favourite, the manager signed centre-back Subotic from his former club, Mainz, in his first summer in charge of Dortmund. The Serbian international played 263 times for BVB before leaving the club in 2018.

He had spells in France, Turkey and Austria – with a single season at Union Berlin in the mix, too – before retiring in 2021. Subotic these days focuses his efforts on campaigning for social and ecological causes.

Centre-back – Mats Hummels

A Manchester United transfer legends XI stalwart – the German Nico Gaitan, if you will – Hummels has never played outside of the Bundesliga. He did, however, jump ship to Bayern in 2016, returning to the club with whom he’d begun his career.

Three seasons in Bavaria yielded three league titles and he moved back to Dortmund in 2019. The 35-year-old World Cup winner is one of only two players from the 2013 side who will take to the field for BVB at Wembley this weekend.

Left-back – Marcel Schmelzer

Left-back Schmelzer joined Dortmund in his teens, made his professional debut with the club at age 20 and never played for anyone else until his retirement in 2022.

The 14-cap Germany international played 367 times for BVB, winning two Bundesliga titles and three DFB Pokals. He is currently an assistant coach with the club’s second string.

Central midfielder – Sven Bender

Bender started out alongside his twin brother, Lars, at 1860 Munich before spending eight years with Dortmund. He joined up with his brother at Bayer Leverkusen in 2018 and the siblings retired together in 2021.

He is now part of Terzic’s first-team coaching staff at Signal Iduna Park, having re-joined the club in January along with former midfielder Nuri Sahin, who came off the bench at Wembley in 2013.

Central midfielder – Ilkay Gundogan

The scorer of Dortmund’s goal from the penalty spot in the Wembley loss to Bayern, Gundogan eventually got a Champions League winner’s medal when he captained Manchester City to Treble glory a decade later.

Serious back and knee injuries once threatened the classy German midfielder’s career, but the Gelsenkirchen-born star overcame those setbacks to win five Premier League titles under Pep Guardiola at the Etihad before signing for Barcelona last summer.

Right-winger – Jakub Blaszczykowski

A fan favourite throughout his nine years with Dortmund, the industrious, hard-grafting right-winger played more than 250 times for the Black and Yellows. Blaszczykowski subsequently spent a less productive couple of years with Wolfsburg before returning to his native Poland in 2019 to sign with Wisla Krakow.

He retired last year at the age of 37 and was recently the subject of an Amazon documentary entitled Kuba.

Attacking midfielder – Marco Reus

The second member of the 2013 team who is still there, Reus has announced that he will leave Dortmund at the end of the 2023/24 season after 12 years with his beloved club. A bona fide icon at Signal Iduna Park, the attacking midfielder re-joined BVB, where he’d played as a youth, from Borussia Monchenglabach in 2012.

With a credible claim to being among the five best players in the world at his peak, Reus has to be the unluckiest superstar in the game: injuries prevented his participation at numerous major tournaments, including Germany’s glorious 2014 World Cup. He will turn 35 on the eve of the 2024 Champions League final. There could be no more fitting end to his glittering Dortmund career than playing a part in an upset victory over Real Madrid.

Left-winger – Kevin Grosskreutz

Grosskreutz began his career in the humble surrounds of the German regional leagues, eventually working his way up to the second tier with Rot Weiss Ahlen before signing for Dortmund, the club he grew up supporting, in 2009.

A reliable performer whether stationed at right-back or on the left wing, Grosskreutz remained with BVB for six years and, despite only mustering six senior international caps, was a member of Germany’s World Cup-winning squad in 2014. He left to sign for Galatasaray in 2014 and, at 35, is still playing in German football’s third tier.

Striker – Robert Lewandowski

Lewandowski overcame the disappointment of a collapsed 2010 move to Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn Rovers and having to instead join Dortmund by scoring 103 goals in 170 games for the club.

The Polish poacher joined Bayern on a free when his contract expired in 2014. He went on to score 344 goals in 375 games for the Rekordmeister, picking up eight Bundesliga titles and a Champions League medal. He signed for Barcelona in 2022 and, to date, at age 35, has scored a comparatively miserable 59 goals in 95 games.

Manager – Jurgen Klopp

He was never heard from again.

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