Just before the hour against Augsburg, in front of the usual packed house of 81,365 supporters, 18-year-old Luca Reggiani scored for Borussia Dortmund. The joy on his face resonated with Paul Schaffran back at the academy.
“Getting our young players into the first team gives everybody hope,” Schaffran tells Sky Sports. As Dortmund’s academy director, speaking at their hotel in Liverpool before a development fixture, he sees Reggiani as part of a broader trend.
Samuele Inacio, another 18-year-old Italian, made his Bundesliga debut against Bayern Munich in February. “He has already showed he is ready.” The 16-year-old Mathis Albert debuted against Freiburg on Sunday. Mussa Kaba, 17, will not have to wait long.
“Inacio came from Atalanta, while Reggiani arrived from Sassuolo. The idea is to build players from scratch but you need both pillars,” Schaffran says. “They know there is a pathway here.” He points out that in Italy the average age of centre-backs is high, making it harder for an 18-year-old to earn minutes there.
Dortmund’s reputation as a finishing school is well known — Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham used the club to fast-track their careers — but recent demands for first-team results and external competition pushed Dortmund to target even younger talent. That increased responsibility for the academy to prepare players, prompting a wholesale shift in mentality.
“We changed our vision, our style of how we want to develop players,” Schaffran explains. “In the past, we pretty much focused on winning. But winning a game at under-17 level means nothing to me if we are not developing a Bundesliga footballer.” Now the approach is the opposite: give players the hardest challenges possible at youth level so it becomes easier to succeed later. “It is a massive change in our thinking.”
Dortmund now fields the youngest under-17 and under-19 squads in Germany and had the youngest side at the Premier League International Cup. That is deliberate. “We are not doing it just because it is nice to be the youngest but because you need to be over-challenged to reach the next level,” Schaffran says. If players are under-challenged, they won’t adapt or develop as they could. Adapting to faster, more physical and more complex football often reduces short-term efficiency and winning, but increases long-term development.
A major element of this refocus has been the introduction of bio-banding. Dortmund use ultrasound analysis to determine players’ true skeletal ages to ensure they face appropriate challenges. The results were eye-opening. Six years ago 35% of their academy were early developers, 60% normal and just 5% late developers — a skew driven by selection bias rather than talent.
“The biggest learning from bio-banding was not for the players, it was for the coaches and scouts,” Schaffran says. It educated staff to view players differently, rather than being swayed by those dominating physically within an age group. “That 14-year-old kid who is being bullied off the ball but has the talent? In the long term, it is going to be okay.”
Schaffran cites one unnamed player who would have been rejected under the old system because he was slower than his peers. Given time to develop at his own pace, there is now hope he could reach the highest level. Rather than imposing quotas, Dortmund focused on education; this year they achieved a more balanced distribution: roughly 15% early developers, 70% normal and 15% late developers.
Prioritising individual development can be tough for teams. Inacio and Albert were key scorers for the under-19s, and Luca had been a leader, but they were moved on because they needed greater challenges. “If I just wanted them to win they would have stayed. That is not how we judge our academy.”
Albert’s season highlights the club’s approach: he featured at the Club World Cup, played for the United States at the Under-17 World Cup, and competed across Dortmund’s under-19s and under-23s in different competitions. “So many environments. He keeps stepping up,” Schaffran notes.
There is institutional support for the pathway. Lars Ricken, a former academy chief now making first-team decisions, has helped bring many young players to the club, and Schaffran is closely involved in planning. “If there is a squad planning meeting for the first team, I am always invited to those meetings. We talk about the youth players.” That connection increases the chances for academy graduates to find opportunities.
Seeing Reggiani celebrate his Bundesliga goal was a proud moment for Schaffran. “Luca was back at the academy celebrating with the under-12-to-15s the other day,” he says. With a clearer vision, bio-banding, and a willingness to accept short-term losses for long-term gain, Dortmund’s conveyor belt of talent looks to be running again.