Niko Kovac on missing out on El Mala - Can Dortmund's new-look squad challenge Bayern?

Borussia Dortmund have had a busy transfer summer. The club sold Karim Adeyemi to Barcelona and moved veteran players Niklas Süle and Julian Brandt on. In their stead, Dortmund added Joane Gadou (RB Salzburg), Konstantinos Karetsas (Genk), Giannis Konstantelias (PAOK), and Joey Veerman (PSV). “I think we had a good transfer period,” Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac said to Transfermarkt. Transfermarkt caught up with the Dortmund boss as part of a media roundtable to speak about Dortmund’s transfer window, tactical changes to his squad and challenging Bayern Munich for the title.

The one player Dortmund couldn't land this summer was Köln star Said El Mala. “El Mala did a great job last season,” Kovac said. Together, Brandt and Adeyemi scored 21 goals last season, and El Mala would have certainly been able to take on some of that lost production. “But as you know, you have to do it again. If he had become our player, there was no guarantee that he would score 12, 13 or 14 goals.” Instead, Kovac is positive that Karetsas and Konstantelias are able to fill the hole left by Dortmund’s departures.

“Of course, when you buy new players, you never know whether it is going to work out,” Kovac said. “But our expectations are high, because Karetsas and Konstantelias have great talent and did an excellent job in their respective leagues, in Belgium and Greece.” Karetsas scored only three goals but managed 18 assists in 49 games across all competitions. Konstantelias scored 14 goals in 40 games across all competitions and already had three goals in four games for PAOK this season. “We watched them for a long period, and we know exactly the sort of talent they have, and they will adapt very fast.”

Dortmund spending equals Bayern - But is it enough to challenge?

When one includes the arrivals of Kauã Prates (Cruzeiro) and Justin Lerma (Independiente del Valle), Dortmund have spent €108.5m this offseason. Once you deduct the departures, Dortmund’s net spending this summer has been €70m. Remarkably, that sort of spending is in line with Dortmund’s biggest rivals, Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich spent €106.5m on new players this summer and earned €37.25m from player sales for a net spending of €69.5m. But where Bayern spent the biggest portion of their transfer fees on just two players, Nathaniel Brown and Ismael Saibari, Dortmund spread the wealth by making six major additions.

Of those new additions, only Veerman (27) and Konstantelias (23) are over 20. Indeed, Dortmund seem to be going back to their roots by relying more heavily on young players this upcoming season. But Kovac isn’t worried that an exuberance of youth could hurt the club. “There has to be a balance,” Kovac said. “Also, the most important aspect is quality, and young talented players give the group something. They are necessary to push the older, more established players. In turn, the older players guide the young, talented players so they can learn faster and more easily. If you have only young players, they won’t learn from one another. In turn, younger players ensure that older players don’t play with their handbrake on.” With an average squad age of 24.6, only two Bundesliga clubs are younger than Dortmund.

It will, therefore, be interesting to see what a young BVB side can accomplish this year. Indeed, ahead of last season, Kovac proclaimed that he wanted to significantly reduce the gap between Bayern Munich and Dortmund in the final league standings. When the dust settled on the 2024/25 season, there was a 25-point gap between the two clubs. Indeed, when Kovac arrived midway through the 2024/25 season to replace Nuri Sahin, the club was already out of the European spots. “It was a difficult situation,” Kovac said. “We had to reset things and break players’ habits. That took time, and ultimately, we finished fourth that year. That showed that we had the quality and all we lacked was a bit of self-confidence.” Then last season Dortmund finished second, closing the gap to Bayern to 16 points.

Kovac on title challenge: "It is easy to say words"

So, will the club close the gap further, and could there even be a proper title race this year? “To close the gap a lot must happen in our favour,” Kovac said. “We must play to our capacity, and Bayern Munich must play below their capacity. Not only do we have to play at our best, but we must hope that they perhaps slip up a bit.” For Dortmund fans and neutrals, this doesn’t exactly sound like an ambitious title challenge. “It is easy to say words,” Kovac said when asked about putting in a challenge for the title. “The more difficult thing is to act. Bayern Munich is always the favourite, and we are more than happy to challenge. I am the sort of guy who puts in the work first before I talk. I think that is the better way. Let’s see how the first five or six games go in the Bundesliga, and then we see whether it is possible to attack more.”