Borussia Dortmund’s Lars Ricken on the club’s aims for this season: “I do expect a place in the top four”

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·28 luglio 2025

Borussia Dortmund’s Lars Ricken on the club’s aims for this season: “I do expect a place in the top four”

Speaking to kicker, Borussia Dortmund director of sport Lars Ricken has spoken about the club’s aims for this season.

Last season, Dortmund finished fourth and just qualified for the Champions League on the final day of the season. Under Niko Kovac, Dortmund showed considerable improvement, with only Bayern Munich bettering their points tally from when the Croatian took charge.

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When asked if Dortmund could win the title, Ricken said:

“Last season, we were 25 points behind Bayern Munich and 12 points behind Bayer Leverkusen. At times, Mainz, Freiburg, and others were ahead of us in the table. For that reason, I’m certainly not setting the league title as my goal. But I do expect a place in the top four. And not just on matchday 34. The expectation of every single player and every single member of staff is to deliver excellent work, to work hard to ensure we have a strong attitude and are a sporting force. With the maximum sporting ambition in our competitions. In the league, the Champions League – and also in the DFB Cup, where we’ve only reached the quarterfinals once in the past four years.”

This season marks 14 years since Dortmund last won the Bundesliga. In that period, they have come close twice in 2019 and most famously in 2023. However, during this time, Dortmund have settled into their position behind Bayern and have never publicly stated a desire to win. This is a culture that has been installed by Hans-Joachim Watzke, as shown by his recent comments about Florian Wirtz, and has continued with the rest of the people in charge.

Ricken was then asked what would constitute a good season and said:

“I don’t want to pin it on a league position, which we then orient ourselves towards throughout the year. Rather, I believe our fans appreciate it when we act as a community, with a clear vision and a comprehensible story about what we want to stand for. Many people asked themselves this exact question last season—including internally—and couldn’t quite answer it. I hope that, building on the end of last season, we can quickly provide a sporting answer that will then lead us to major sporting successes in the medium term.”

Considering Bayern’s inability to sign their transfer targets, RB Leipzig being an unknown, Leverkusen losing several key players and Frankfurt and Stuttgart potentially taking the next step, the upcoming Bundesliga season is currently set up to be an interesting prospect, and would give Dortmund a chance to win a title.

GGFN | Jack Meenan