50 Fun Facts About Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund was founded in defiance of a local what?

Priest: the chaplain who ran their church youth club disapproved of football, and when he came to break up the founding meeting, the players blocked him at the door.

Which coach led Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League title in 1997?

Ottmar Hitzfeld: at the height of his success he gave up the coaching job straight after the final and moved upstairs to become the club's sporting director.

Club lore says Dortmund's founders borrowed the name Borussia from a local what?

Brewery: the story goes that an advert for Borussia beer hung on the wall of the room where the club was founded, though the word itself is Latin for Prussia.

Who scored a hat-trick as a substitute on his Borussia Dortmund debut in January 2020?

Erling Haaland: he came off the bench at Augsburg with Dortmund losing 3-1 and scored three times to turn the match into a 5-3 win.

Which club is Dortmund's opponent in the Revierderby?

Schalke 04: the Gelsenkirchen club won 14 of the pair's 16 league meetings between 1936 and 1944, before Dortmund beat them in the 1947 Westphalian final and the balance of power began to shift.

When Dortmund retained the German title in 1957, what was identical to the 1956 final?

The line-up: the coach sent out exactly the same eleven men who had won the title a year earlier, and they beat Hamburg 4-1.

Dortmund's 1950s forwards Preißler, Kelbassa and Niepieklo shared which nickname?

The three Alfredos: all three forwards were called Alfred, and with them in attack Dortmund won the German championship in 1956 and again in 1957.

Which Dortmund player scored the first ever Bundesliga goal in 1963?

Friedhelm Konietzka: he scored in the first minute at Werder Bremen, yet no film or photograph of the league's first goal exists, and Dortmund went on to lose 3-2.

Which English club did Dortmund beat 2–1 in the 1966 Cup Winners' Cup final?

Liverpool: in extra time Reinhard Libuda's long lob came back off the woodwork, hit defender Ron Yeats and went in, giving a German club its first European trophy.

Dortmund got the Westfalenstadion built by replacing which city as a 1974 World Cup host?

Cologne: its own stadium rebuild proved too expensive, so Dortmund stepped in and, with federal and state money, put up a cheap prefabricated ground instead.

Which club did Dortmund beat in a third decisive playoff to avoid relegation in 1986?

Fortuna Köln: Dortmund were moments from relegation until Jürgen Wegmann scored in stoppage time of the second leg, forcing a decider that they won 8-0.

Which striker scored twice in the 1989 DFB-Pokal final and later became Dortmund's stadium announcer?

Norbert Dickel: he played the final on a badly damaged knee, scored two of the four goals, and has been sung about ever since as the Hero of Berlin.

Who beat Dortmund 6–1 on aggregate in the 1993 UEFA Cup final?

Juventus: Dortmund got their revenge four years later, beating the same club 3-1 when the two met again in the Champions League final.

Which Borussia Dortmund player won the Ballon d'Or in 1996?

Matthias Sammer: the sweeper won it in the year of Dortmund's second straight title, then came back as coach and won the league with the club again in 2002.

In which stadium did Dortmund win the 1997 Champions League final?

The Olympiastadion, Munich: Dortmund faced holders whose midfield included Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps, and still led 2-0 after 34 minutes on the way to a 3-1 win.

Who scored Dortmund's first two goals in the 1997 Champions League final?

Karl-Heinz Riedle: he struck twice in five first-half minutes, eight years after scoring against Dortmund for Werder Bremen in the 1989 German cup final.

Which Dortmund-born substitute scored with his first touch in the 1997 Champions League final?

Lars Ricken: just 16 seconds after coming on, the 20-year-old chipped the goalkeeper from more than 20 yards out to settle the final at 3-1.

Beating Cruzeiro in Tokyo in 1997 won Dortmund which trophy?

The Intercontinental Cup: the yearly meeting of the champions of Europe and South America crowned Dortmund world club champions, six months after their European triumph.

What distinction did Borussia Dortmund gain in October 2000?

First publicly traded German club: the shares went on sale at 11 euros each, but heavy spending followed and by 2005 the club stood on the brink of insolvency.

Which Dutch club beat Dortmund in the 2002 UEFA Cup final?

Feyenoord: the final happened to be played in the Dutch club's own stadium in Rotterdam, and Dortmund defender Jürgen Kohler was sent off in the last match of his career.

Which rival lent a near-bankrupt Borussia Dortmund €2 million to help pay its players?

Bayern Munich: the loan helped keep Dortmund afloat when the club could not pay its players, and about a decade later the two met in a Champions League final.

What has Dortmund's Westfalenstadion been called since an insurance company bought its naming rights?

Signal Iduna Park: the deal began in December 2005 to help pay down the club's debts, yet on European nights UEFA's sponsor rules turn it into 'BVB Stadion Dortmund'.

Whom did Jürgen Klopp replace as Dortmund manager in 2008?

Thomas Doll: he had saved the club from relegation a year earlier, then resigned within weeks of taking a 13th-placed side all the way to the German cup final.

Which playmaker left Dortmund's record-breaking 2012 champions for Manchester United that summer?

Shinji Kagawa: he left a side that had just set a Bundesliga record of 81 points, and two years later he was back in Dortmund.

Whose hat-trick beat Bayern 5-2 in the 2012 DFB-Pokal final to seal Dortmund's first double?

Robert Lewandowski: his three goals completed the club's first league and cup double, and two years later he joined the team he had just beaten on a free transfer.

Why does Dortmund wear two stars above its crest?

For five Bundesliga titles: the league's star scheme counts only championships won since the Bundesliga began in 1963, so Dortmund's three earlier German titles earn nothing.

Whom did Dortmund beat 4–1 at home in the 2013 Champions League semi-final first leg?

Real Madrid: a single Dortmund striker scored all four goals, something nobody had done before in a Champions League semi-final.

Where was the 2013 all-German Champions League final that Dortmund lost 2–1?

Wembley Stadium: Dortmund had levelled from the penalty spot, only for Arjen Robben to win it for their German rivals in the 89th minute.

Who replaced Jürgen Klopp when he left Borussia Dortmund after seven years in 2015?

Thomas Tuchel: Dortmund named him just four days after Klopp said he was going, and he stayed two seasons, winning the German cup in his last match.

Whose stoppage-time winner at Anfield knocked Dortmund out of the 2016 Europa League, 5-4 on aggregate?

Dejan Lovren: Dortmund had led 2-0 after nine minutes and 3-1 with half an hour left, against a side coached by their own former manager, Jürgen Klopp.

Which defender was injured when bombs hit Borussia Dortmund's team bus before a 2017 tie with Monaco?

Marc Bartra: glass from the shattered bus window sent him to hospital for wrist surgery, yet the match was played just a day later and Dortmund lost 3-2.

Whose penalty won Dortmund the 2017 DFB-Pokal final 2-1 against Eintracht Frankfurt?

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: his spot-kick, awarded when the goalkeeper brought down Christian Pulisic, ended Dortmund's run of three lost cup finals in a row.

From which club did Dortmund hire Lucien Favre in 2018?

OGC Nice: Favre went unbeaten through his first 15 Bundesliga games with Dortmund, yet his side still finished two points short of the title.

What was the Amazon Prime documentary about Borussia Dortmund's 2018-19 season called?

Inside Borussia Dortmund: the four-part series filmed the second half of a season in which Dortmund led at the winter break and still lost the title by two points.

A 5-1 home defeat to which club got Lucien Favre sacked by Dortmund in December 2020?

Stuttgart: they had only just been promoted, and Favre's assistant Edin Terzić, who took over as caretaker, ended that season by winning the German cup.

A 2–2 home draw with which club cost Dortmund the 2022–23 title on goal difference?

Mainz: Dortmund began the final day top and needed only a home win, but a late winner in their rivals' match elsewhere took the title away on goal difference.

Whom did Dortmund sell for €103 million in 2023?

Jude Bellingham: Dortmund had signed him from Birmingham City at 17, and a year after selling him they lost the Champions League final to his new club.

Which arms manufacturer's 2024 sponsorship deal with Borussia Dortmund drew criticism from the club's fans?

Rheinmetall: no arms maker had sponsored a top Bundesliga club before, and Dortmund's chief executive defended the deal by calling security and defence cornerstones of democracy.

Borussia Dortmund's 'Yellow Wall' is the standing terrace on which side of its stadium?

South: nearly 25,000 fans stand on it, the largest terrace in European football, and in 2022 UEFA agreed they could stay standing on Champions League nights instead of being given seats.

Germany had never lost at Borussia Dortmund's stadium until which team beat them there in the 2006 World Cup semi-final?

Italy: Germany had been unbeaten in the stadium since it opened in 1974, a run that ended in extra time against the team that went on to win the World Cup.

What is Borussia Dortmund's club museum, opened in its stadium in 2008, called?

Borusseum: with the club deep in debt, its own fans planned the museum and paid for it through donations, and it opened on Dortmund's 99th birthday.

As of 2025, who holds Borussia Dortmund's record for most first-team appearances?

Michael Zorc: he spent his whole 17-year career at Dortmund, playing a club-record 463 Bundesliga games, then built its squads as sporting director until 2022.

Dortmund's 8–4 win over which club set the Champions League record for goals in a match?

Legia Warsaw: the Polish side scored first and still conceded eight, in a match where seven of the twelve goals arrived before half-time.

Which Dortmund teenager became the Bundesliga's youngest ever player in 2020, a day after turning 16?

Youssoufa Moukoko: the league had lowered its age limit to 16 that year at Dortmund's request, and 17 days after his debut he broke the Champions League's age record too.

Dortmund suffered the worst defeat in Bundesliga history, 12–0, against whom in 1978?

Borussia Mönchengladbach: they needed a landslide to take the title on goal difference and still fell three goals short, while the rout cost Dortmund coach Otto Rehhagel his job.

Which Dortmund-born former captain left Borussia Dortmund in 2024 after twelve seasons without winning the Bundesliga?

Marco Reus: he finished runner-up in the league seven times with his hometown club, and played in the Champions League final in both his first season and his last.

Which manufacturer has supplied Dortmund's kit since 2012–13?

Puma: Dortmund once did without an outside supplier altogether, making its own kit under a house brand, goool.de, from 2000 to 2004.

Borussia Dortmund was founded near which square in the north of the city?

Borsigplatz: the club's first ground lay close by until it was seized without compensation in the 1930s to make way for a park, forcing a move across the city.

Under Jürgen Klopp, Borussia Dortmund began training with the Footbonaut, a machine that does what?

Fires balls at players: eight machines feed balls in from all sides, and the player must control each one and pass it into whichever target panel lights up.

Borussia Dortmund's women won the German championship in 2021 in which sport?

Handball: the season before had been abandoned with Dortmund's women on course for the title, so the 2021 triumph was officially their first German championship.