Watzke

17 January 2024 - 4:18 PM

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IMAGO | Hans Joachim Watzke attending a Borussia Dortmund match during the 2005/06 season.

The Yellow Wall stands tall: Hans-Joachim Watzke’s Dortmund legacy

  • Hans-Joachim Watzke, Dortmund's longstanding CEO, last week announced his intention to step down next year, bringing an end to one of football’s most enduring executive reigns.
  • In rescuing the club from the brink of bankruptcy and bringing the Bundesliga title back to Westfalenstadion within six years, Watzke oversaw a football miracle. But Bayern Munich’s dominance over the past decade has been impossible to crack.
  • Why it matters: At a time when football has lost touch with its community roots, Dortmund have remained true to football’s origins while remaining part of the elite. Reconciling this contradiction has been central to Watzke’s success.
  • The perspective: Could Watzke, in his semi-retirement as a UEFA committeeman, carry the flame for German football globally in the way that Franz Beckenbauer once did?

There is an argument that the most significant moment of Borussia Dortmund’s history this century occurred not in front of its iconic Yellow Wall at the Westfalenstadion, nor at Wembley Stadium, where they played in the 2013 Champions League Final. Nor was it in Milan, Paris, Madrid, London or any of the other cities they have wowed with their high tempo football. Neither did it involve Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gündogan, Robert Lewandowski, Tomas Rosicky, Jude Bellingham or any of the other thri

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