Today in Westphalia, Dortmund, one great era will come to an end. An era which lasted for 24 years. The match against Hertha, apart from being the last one in the current Bundesliga season will also be the last in the official mandate of Michael Zorc, one of the longest-serving sports directors in the history of German football. The former German national team player and living legend of the Millionaires is retiring after almost four and a half decades at the club (44 years) as a member of the younger categories, first team player and director.Hans-Joachim Watzke on Michael Zorc: “BVB owes Michael a huge debt of gratitude. He has had the greatest career of any Borussian. 44 years at his club in his city – that’s as good as it gets.” [SID] #BVB pic.twitter.com/bp1KpKXqEN— BVB Buzz (@BVBBuzz) May 12, 2022 Zorc is the record holder in the number of games in the yellow and black jersey (572), he scored as many as 159 goals as a central midfielder, was captain from 1989 until the end of his playing career in 1998, participated in winning 17 of 22 trophies in club history. In one word – he is the flag of Dortmund! With him and Hans-Joachim Watzke, Borussia went from an illiquid club to the champion of Germany, a finalist in the Champions League in 2013 and one of the most successful factories for making money in football.(©AFP)Zorc is often criticized for making Dortmund a development club – and rightly so – but they also ignore the fact that his business moves have brought Borussia to the ‘green’ from the brink of bankruptcy, and that they are one of the few European giants today who operate on the transfer market as correctly as possible. And they have no debts. According to Michael Zorc’s supporters, he has recognized that this is a time of cruel domination of Bayern. His principle was clear: Borussia will never go beyond its capabilities, it will only spend as much as it earns and thus preserve financial stability. Because, who can guarantee the title with 200, 300 or 500 million euros spent on reinforcements when you have a mighty Bayern as a rival?Dortmund, Kreuzviertel. #BVB pic.twitter.com/39r3T4a9i1— Marian Laske (@MarianLaske) May 13, 2022 Fans generally accepted his reasoning. That why the city streets were covered with Zorc’s paintings during the week with the message: “Michael, thank you for everything!”. During all these years, Michael Zorc brought many stars to Borussia. But also many anonymous people who will end up being household names. Let’s name just a few: Tomas Rosicky, Sunday Oliseh, Marsio Amoroso, Jan Kohler, Cuba Blaszczykowski, Neven Subotic, Mats Hummels, Robert Lewandowski, Shinji Kagawa, Ilkay Gundogan, Ivan Perisic, Marco Reus, Henrik Mkhitaryan, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele, Rafael Guerreiro, Jadon Sancho, Axel Witzel, Christian Pulisic, Julian Brant, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham …Borussia Dortmund – a coin factory from GermanyBorussia profited extremely from a large number of these guys. We have already written about individual cases a few days ago, this time collected (during the director’s term of office of Michael Zorc): 1,060,000,000 euros! And once again in words: BILLION and sixty million euros! And when you spend 24 years in a club, then it is impossible not to make some mistakes during all that time. Michael Zorc made a few, but there is also that extremely interesting ‘Which players I nearly signed’ column, and the Germans made a list of several very attractive names that Zorc nearly captured. Not to mention they are all world stars now.KEVIN DE BRUYNEThe Belgian wanted to go to Westphalia, but his wish was not granted. Chelsea was ready to let him go to Borussia and pay extra money just so they could take Robert Lewandowski, but the Pole had already agreed everything with Bayern, waited another six months for his contract to expire and went to Munich as a free agent. De Bruyne then finished in Wolfsburg for 22 million euros while Borussia bought Henrik Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar.’Being second in Bundesliga is not good enough’SADIO MANEThe great Liverpool star (and possible Bayern player come September 2022) sat in the office of Michael Zorc together with Jurgen Klopp in 2014. Negotiations progressed well, but at the last minute Southampton entered the story, raised the price and forced Salzburg sell him to England. In the end, the Saints bought Mane for 23 million, and sold him to Klopp when he arrived at Anfield for almost twice as much money.(©AFP)SON The Borussia – Son realization almost happen a few times. The first time was in 2013, while he was in Hamburger, and then when he left Bayer Leverkusen. Dortmund remembers this player well because he scored as many as nine goals in 12 games against them, playing for HSV, Leverkusen and Tottenham. Zorc used that fact to joke that he always knew he was the right player for Millionaires.DONE DEAL: Half of the Haaland sale money has already been spentKYLIAN MBAPPEThere is a story that Michael Zorc sent scouts to watch Kylian Mbappe several times even before he started to score in Monaco jersey. He allegedly also had a meeting with his parents. Since he was under 16, Borussia had to move the whole family to Germany, to take care of his mother and father. No agreement was reached and Mbappe later became the second most expensive player in the world when he moved to Paris Saint-Germain.MARK VAN BOMMELTen years earlier, due to lack of money, the transfer of the Dutch midfielder from PSV failed. Van Bommel was one of the most wanted players in Europe, and Borussia was in a financial crisis, but their coach at the time was Van Bommel’s father-in-law – Bert van Marwijk. It seemed that everything was agreed, but PSV raised the price by 3 million euros and broke the negotiations. Van Bommel then waited for his contract to expire and moved to Barcelona.BUNDESLIGA – Round 34Saturday16.30: (10.0) Bielefeld (6.50) RB Leipzig (1.28)16.30: (1.63) Augsburg (4.00) Greuther Furth (5.60)16.30: (2.55) Leverkusen (3.45) Freiburg (2.75)16.30: (2.14) M’ gladbach (3.60) Hoffenheim (3.35)16.30: (1.66) Dortmund (4.10) Hertha (5.10)16.30: (1.70) Mainz (4.00) Eintr.Frankfurt (4.90)16.30: (1.45) Union Berlin (4.50) Bochum (7.75)16.30: (2.14) Stuttgart (3.80) Koln (3.20)16.30: (5.30) Wolfsburg (4.30) Bayern (1.61)***odds are subject to change
