DORTMUND: Borussia Dortmund are world soccer’s finishing school no longer.
A club renowned for readying talented youngsters like Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland for the big stage are now on that stage itself, facing Real Madrid — and Bellingham — in the Champions League final Saturday.
This Dortmund team are different, though. They are built around older players making the most of second chances after career setbacks.
“We have our own story,” coach Edin Terzic said Wednesday. “We have the story of ups and downs of the last years. We are one of the teams that is selling players by the end of the season. We are a team that builds up to compete every year, but now we are there, and we are facing teams that are built to win the Champions League.”
And then there’s Jadon Sancho.
The former England national team forward has revived his career since rejoining Dortmund on loan in January from Manchester United, where he hadn’t played since August amid a rift with manager Erik ten Hag.
The final at Wembley will be the last game of Sancho’s loan, but Dortmund hope they will also start fresh talks on keeping him.
“We are so proud, we are so happy that he’s in our team at the moment and I can see his smile every day, I can see his performance on the pitch every day,” sporting director Sebastian Kehl said.
“So, I think he will be very important for us on Saturday. He will show the world that Jadon Sancho is really back.”
Kehl said Dortmund plan “discussions” about the 24-year-old Sancho’s future, but only after Saturday’s game. “He’s still under contract with Man United, so nobody knows what’s going on there,” Kehl added. “We’re going to have discussions, but after the final.”
Sancho isn’t the only Dortmund player who has been rejected elsewhere. Defender Mats Hummels and midfielder Emre Can were both left out of the German national team squad for their home European Championship, and Sancho wasn’t picked for England.
The Champions League gives them the chance to show they remain competitive at the top level — and maybe even earn a dramatic recall for Euro 2024.
The 30-year-old Can suggested he and Sancho could be inspired by that rejection when they play against Madrid.
“He’s not happy about it, of course. Me also, I’m not in the German squad, I’m not happy about it,” Can said. “Of course, it gives you maybe the extra motivation to show the coaches in national teams that we deserve to be there. That’s what we will try on Saturday.”
Only two Dortmund players made the Germany squad for Euro 2024, including striker Niclas Füllkrug, who spent much of his career in the second division before finally breaking through at 29 with Werder Bremen and making his national team debut in 2022.
Forward Sébastien Haller is in the Champions League final less than two years on from a diagnosis of testicular cancer which left him needing chemotherapy and surgery before he returned to action with Dortmund. He’s seeking his second trophy of the season after scoring the winning goal in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations with the Ivory Coast in February.
Dortmund do have some promising young players, but winger Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and striker Youssoufa Moukoko, both 19-year-olds, have typically been on the bench in the Champions League this season and 21-year-old American Gio Reyna was loaned out to Nottingham Forest.
There isn’t an obvious successor to Bellingham, who was sold for up to 130 million euros ($139 million at the time) to Madrid last year, or Haaland, who earlier moved to Manchester City for 60 million euros ($63 million at the time) and won the Champions League last year.
Sporting director Kehl himself has unfinished business in the Champions League. Dortmund are in the final for the first time since 2013, when they lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich, also at Wembley. Kehl, then a midfielder, was on the bench in that game.
Dortmund are coming off their worst Bundesliga season in nine years with a fifth-place finish, but have shown in the Champions League that their grizzled, battle-scarred squad can peak in crucial games. There’s been a healthy dose of luck, too, after Dortmund survived Paris Saint-Germain repeatedly hitting the post and crossbar in the semifinals.
A year after dropping the Bundesliga title in the final minutes of the season, Dortmund are aiming to end this campaign on a triumph.
“There is one more game left and it’s the biggest game in European club competition,” Terzic said. “This is waiting for us, and we have to show that we are ready to go for it.”
Dortmund head into Champions League final with an older, tougher team instead of young talents
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Dortmund head into Champions League final with an older, tougher team instead of young talents

- This Dortmund team are different, though. They are built around older players making the most of second chances after career setbacks
- “We have our own story,” coach Edin Terzic said
Liverpool defender Quansah signs for Bayer Leverkusen

- The transfer fee for the 22-year-old could go up to $47m
- “We are very happy to be able to sign Jarell Quansah, one of the most promising English central defenders,” said Rolfes
MUNICH: Center-half Jarell Quansah has joined Bayer Leverkusen from Premier League champions Liverpool for a reported club record fee, the Bundesliga side announced on Wednesday.
According to British and German press, the transfer fee for the 22-year-old could go up to 40 million euros ($47 million), including 10 million euros in add-ons.
German specialist media Kicker and The Athletic also reported the inclusion of a 60-million-euros buy-back clause in the contract, which Liverpool could activate from summer 2027 to re-sign Quansah.
“We are very happy to be able to sign Jarell Quansah, one of the most promising English central defenders,” said Leverkusen managing director of sport Simon Rolfes.
“He made a very impressive contribution to a Liverpool defense full of world-class players. Jarell will give our defense extra dynamism, tempo and strength.”
Quansah becomes the most expensive signing in Leverkusen’s history, following on from the previous record arrival of midfielder Kerem Demirbay for 32 million euros in 2019.
The 2025 European under-21 champion with England joined Liverpool’s academy as a five-year-old, and rose through the ranks before making his first-team debut in 2023.
He went on to appear 58 times for the Merseysiders, winning the League Cup in 2022 and 2024, as well as the Premier League title last season.
After playing second fiddle to first-choice defensive duo Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate for much of the 2024/25 campaign, Quansah arrives at Leverkusen to replace departed former captain Jonathan Tah at the heart of the Bundesliga club’s defense.
“The ambitious targets here were clearly explained to me during the negotiations. It’s a great role and challenge for me to be part of the current Leverkusen rebuild,” said Quansah.
After creating league history by winning the Bundesliga undefeated in 2024, Leverkusen endured a difficult title defense last term, finishing 13 points adrift of winners Bayern Munich.
Stars of their league-and-cup double from two seasons years ago, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, have recently gone in the opposite direction from Quansah, joining Liverpool from Leverkusen this close-season.
Real Madrid quarterfinal just a bonus for ‘overperforming’ Dortmund

- Kovac came out on top in May when he pitted his wits against new Real coach Xabi Alonso when the Spaniard was in charge at Bayer Leverkusen
ATLANTA, Georgia: Borussia Dortmund coach Niko Kovac said a date in the Club World Cup quarterfinals against Real Madrid was just a bonus for his overperforming team, who held off a second-half comeback from Monterrey to win 2-1 in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
Two goals from Serhou Guirassy put Dortmund well on top at halftime and Kovac was pleased with how hard they battled after their Mexican opponents stormed back in the second half.
Although Dortmund lost 2-0 to Real in the 2024 Champions League final, they have experienced something of a revival since Kovac took over from Nuri Sahin in February.
They earned a spot in next season’s Champions League with a victory over Kiel in their last match of the Bundesliga season and have continued to improve at the Club World Cup.
Kovac came out on top in May when he pitted his wits against new Real coach Xabi Alonso when the Spaniard was in charge at Bayer Leverkusen.
The Croatian might be downplaying their ambitions of going further but Real would be wise to take their challenge seriously, especially if they can replicate Tuesday’s first-half performance.
Key quotes
Dortmund coach Niko Kovac: “We are happy. I think we overperformed. We passed the group stage. This is now on top. This is a bonus for us, and now playing against the biggest team and biggest club in the world is a good challenge.”
“I think that for us, Borussia Dortmund, and also for German football as a whole, this is a big, big deal.”
Dortmund coach Niko Kovac: “We know (Xabi Alonso) very well. So he worked two and a half years in Germany, and he did a fantastic job.
“Now he’s implementing everything he had in Leverkusen at Real Madrid. So we’re expecting the same what we had in Leverkusen, only with different players.
“We’re looking forward to it but you have to play football for 90 minutes, and if we put everything onto the pitch, same performance as we saw today, I think that we will have a good chance.”
Convictions in FIFA corruption case reinstated: court

- Hernan Lopez, a former executive with 21st Century Fox, and marketing firm Full Play, had been acquitted on appeal
- An appeals court on Wednesday found that the decision to acquit on appeal had been erroneous
NEW YORK: A United States appeals court on Wednesday reinstated the convictions of a former Fox broadcasting executive and an Argentine sports-marketing firm involved in the FIFA corruption scandal.
Hernan Lopez, a former executive with 21st Century Fox, and marketing firm Full Play, had been acquitted on appeal following their conviction in 2023 after a judge cited precedent from a US Supreme Court ruling.
However an appeals court in New York on Wednesday found that the decision to acquit on appeal had been erroneous, citing a misreading of the law surrounding federal wire fraud.
“We hold that the district court erred in concluding that defendants’ conduct did not fall within the scope of Statute 1346,” a ruling said.
“Therefore, we vacate the district court’s judgments,” the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, remanding the case for “further proceedings pursuant to this opinion.”
Lopez and Full Play’s case was was one of several to emerge from the 2015 probe from the US Justice Department which rocked world soccer’s governing body FIFA and continental confederations for South and North America.
The US investigation, which included raids on FIFA officials in Zurich, led to a series of arrests and trails and subsequent charges, convictions and guilty pleas.
Lopez and Full Play were found guilty on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in March 2023.
Lopez faced up to 40 years in prison and millions of dollars in penalties. Full Play was expected to face millions of dollars in fines.
Before the convictions of Lopez and Full Play, the court had heard that the main beneficiaries of the kickback scheme were six of the most powerful men in South American football.
They included former CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz, who died in 2019, former Argentine football executive Julio Grondona, who died in 2014, and former Brazilian football chief Ricardo Teixeira.
Gonzalo heads Real Madrid past Juventus and into Club World Cup quarters

- The Spanish giants will face the winner of Tuesday’s other game between Borussia Dortmund and Mexico’s Monterrey in the last eight
MIAMI GARDENS, United States: Gonzalo Garcia’s 54th-minute header was enough to give Real Madrid a 1-0 win over Juventus at Hard Rock Stadium on Tuesday and book their place in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup.
The Spanish giants will face the winner of Tuesday’s other game between Borussia Dortmund and Mexico’s Monterrey in the last eight.
It was an impressive display from Xabi Alonso’s Madrid side and adding to a positive day, Kylian Mbappe made his return from illness, coming on as a 68th-minute substitute for his first appearance of the tournament.
The first half was a finely-balanced contest with Igor Tudor’s Juventus starting brightly before Real ended it on top.
There was an early chance for Juve’s Randal Kolo Muani after clever work from Kenan Yildiz to put him through on goal, but the French forward opted for an attempted chip of Thibaut Courtois and his shot floated over the bar.
The impressive Yildiz then burst through the middle and unleashed a fierce effort which deflected off Aurelien Tchouameni and flew wide.
The Turin team, beaten 5-2 by Manchester City in their final group game, were moving the ball around with confidence but Real grew into the contest and they went close when Jude Bellingham forced a save out of Michele Di Gregorio from close range.
Federico Valverde then tested the Juve goalkeeper from long range and Trent Alexander-Arnold whipped a low ball across the face of the goal as Madrid finished the half strongly.
The interval did nothing to alter the momentum of the game with Real creating several chances — Bellingham laid off to Valverde, whose sweetly-struck shot was just wide and then Bellingham himself brought another good save out of Di Gregorio with a shot from the edge of the box.
Dean Huijsen’s rocketing drive was parried out by the busy goalkeeper as Real laid seige to the Juventus goal and it was no surprise when the breakthrough finally arrived.
Alexander-Arnold floated in a cross from the right which Gonzalo met with a perfectly-timed header for his third goal in four games in the tournament.
Juve responded with Portuguese winger Francisco Conceicao bringing Courtois into action from a low shot the Belgian shot-stopper did well to get down to.
But Real wanted to finish the contest off and Valverde tested Di Gregorio’s reactions with an overhead kick before Alonso decided to introduce Mbappe to the delight of the 62,149 crowd.
Juve’s belief remained however and Nicolas Gonzalez flashed a 25-yard drive just wide.
At the other end, Real’s Turkish midfielder Arda Guler saw his crisp shot kept out by the feet of Di Gregorio, but the one goal was enough.
Botafogo sack manager Paiva after Club World Cup exit

- Paiva’s team went out at the last 16 stage with a 1-0 loss
- Paiva said he was shocked by the club’s decision
SAO POALO: Botafogo have sacked manager Renato Paiva following their Club World Cup exit, the Brazilian club said, despite his side beating Champions League winners Paris St. Germain earlier in the competition.
Paiva’s team went out at the last 16 stage with a 1-0 loss after extra-time to fellow-Brazilian club Palmeiras, and the manager has paid the price after just four months in charge.
Botafogo grabbed the spotlight at the Club World Cup when they beat PSG 1-0 in the group stage, having earlier defeated Seattle Sounders, and they advanced as Group B runners-up despite a 1-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid.
“The Club thanks Paiva and his assistants for their services to Botafogo over the last few months,” a club statement on social media said.
“Particularly for the historic victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup and the qualification for the round of 16 of the (Copa) Libertadores and Copa do Brasil.”
Paiva said he was shocked by the club’s decision.
“I don’t want to talk at the moment, there will be time for that. All I can say is that I’m shocked, and the staff and players are open-mouthed about the decision,” he told Globo Esporte.