German Football 
/ Ben Lyttleton / 28 February 2011 / 1 Comments 
Nuri Sahin and Mario Gotze are among Dortmund's young stars
"Manchester United have already been linked with Gotze, while Chelsea reportedly tried to buy defender Nevan Subotic in January, with Bayern going for Hummels at the same time."
Jurgen Klopp wants to take the German champions-elect to the very top. But can he hold on to his talented youngsters? Ben Lyttleton reports.
There was a changing of the guard in Germany this week, as Borussia Dortmund not only beat Bayern Munich 3-1 at the Allianz Arena, but they out-played, out-ran and out-fought their opponents to as good as end the Bundesliga title race. Dortmund are 12 points clear at the top of the table and in to [1.03] to win the league for the first time since 2002.
Bayern are now 16 back, with ten games to play, hence their [85.0] price. Their best chance of a trophy now rests in the German Cup: they are [1.57] to beat Schalke in Wednesday's semi-final first leg, and [1.38] to lift the trophy. After beating Inter 1-0 in the Champions League, they are [1.29] to reach the last eight and [12.5] to go one better than last season and win the European crown.
For Dortmund, the more significant question, given that the average age of the oufield players is just 22, the youngest in the division, is whether they can sustain their progress under coach Jurgen Klopp and become a new leading light in German football.
Certainly Klopp is committed to the project. He signed a new contract earlier this season and said, "Why would I want to go anywhere else when I have this fantastic group here, where we all understand each other?" But he would need the same from Dortmund's young group to sustain this momentum.
Among the stars that bigger clubs will be looking at this summer are Nuri Sahin, Mats Hummels, Mario Gotze and Kevin Grosskreutz. All combine the best elements of Dortmund's youth academy and scouting system and are key to the club's future success.
Sahin, who scored against Bayern on Saturday, burst onto the scene in 2005, breaking Lars Ricken's club record as the youngest player to represent Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Three months later, he was the youngest to score in the league, and the club closed ranks around the German-born Turkey international. "We are not Borussia Sahin," complained sporting director Michael Zorc at the time.
Sahin is still there but now 22, and with over 20 international caps to his name. The new Sahin that Zorc has uncovered is arguably even more exciting. Gotze played so well in a 4-1 win against Leverkusen in January that he was taken off to avoid his humiliated opponents injuring him. Gotze has stepped in for Shinji Kagawa, who scored 11 goals in the first half of the season but was inured on Asian Cup duty and will miss the rest of the season.
Grosskreutz joined as a free-agent from a second division club and totally outplayed Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger on Saturday. No-one runs more than the average 13.6 kilometres he covers in a game while Hummels went even further: a former-Bayern youth academy graduate, sold to Borussia for £3m, he has become the Bundesliga's outstanding centre-back over the last 18 months, and headed home the final goal in Dortmund's 3-1 win.
Klopp was justly delighted by the performance of his team, which made a mockery of Bayern president Uli Hoeness saying, "We're the better team: one on one, Dortmund has no chance," before the game. It was the first time Dortmund had won in Munich for almost 20 years.
But the new fear in Dortmund, before the side has even won this title, is if Zorc can keep everyone together to compete in the Champions League next season and to try and dominate the Bundesliga for the foreseeable future.
Three recent league winners, all of whom topped the table with dynamic young sides, have struggled after losing either the coach or key players: Bremen in 2004, Stuttgart in 2007 and Wolfsburg in 2009 have all flirted with relegation in recent seasons.
Manchester United have already been linked with Gotze, while Chelsea reportedly tried to buy defender Nevan Subotic in January, with Bayern going for Hummels at the same time. Striker Lucas Barrios, as well as midfielder Sven Bender and Kagawa, have also all been subjects of interest from so-called bigger clubs.
Süddeutsche Zeitung recently questioned whether some of these individuals would succeed alongside new team-mates: "Grosskreutz, Sahin, Götze or Marcel Schmelzer would surely do well elsewhere too, but as a group, especially, they seem to possess an inner light that could take them into the European top level."
The biggest fears, though, centre around Klopp, the professorial-looking coach who is already on the radar to replace Louis van Gaal at Bayern Munich and Joachim Loew as Germany coach after Euro 2012. If Klopp is as good as his word and does stay with BVB, then there could be a new contender in the running for next season's Champions League.
Jurgen Klopp wants to take the German champions-elect to the very top. But can he hold on to his talented youngsters? Ben Lyttleton reports....
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