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Borussia Dortmund may be at a pivotal moment in the race for future Bundesliga titles. Sure they’re losing Erling Haaland to Manchester City, but they’re replacing him with Salzburg’s Karim Adeyemi, in addition to picking up Bayern's Niklas Süle on a free and prizing away Nico Schlotterbeck from Freiburg. Excellent work so far by the club, and these moves have all been completed for weeks now.
Not only this, outside the confines of Dortmund, it appears that the most lethal striker the German top flight has ever seen, Robert Lewandowski, is bound for Spain. This significantly weakens Bayern for next season and leaves the door cracked for a potential first title challenge in a decade in 2022-23.
In order to fit through that crack in the door and really push Bayern for the league title, Dortmund must first take full advantage of what is immediately before them. That is the rest of the 2022 summer transfer window. Even with the excellent business they've already done, there still is a bit more to be done at Signal Iduna Park. Here are two moves that Dortmund need to make happen over the rest of this summer.
Borussia Dortmund transfer targets Summer 2022
1. Sign Jayden Braaf
At the time of this writing, the club has just confirmed the signing of Jayden Braaf within the last few hours. With such little business left to do for Dortmund this summer, it's worth diving into anyway.
Braaf, a 19-year old Dutch winger who has played in the youth setups of Ajax and PSV before most recently joining Manchester City. In his last season playing in City's youth teams he scored thirteen goals. He also set up four more for his teammates in 46 appearances for City's under-23s.
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Last season Braaf went on loan to Udinese in Serie A. He scored once in four appearances and 115 minutes with the first team. A significant knee injury kept him from making further contributions to Udinese. In total, the injury kept Braaf out for over a year now. Dortmund have said that they will allow him to make a very gradual return to senior competition, noting that with his extended absence, it will take him time to re-adjust to the speed of the game.
He's long been regarded as one of the best talents to play within the Manchester City youth setup. Braaf offers electrifying pace and skill on the ball, and Dortmund's statement on the signing indicates they've been closely following Braaf's development for years. A signing like this is reminiscent of the Jaden Sancho deal, who Dortmund were able to develop over the course of four years and sell on for $93 million last summer. If they can get anywhere close to that kind of return for Braaf, who has signed for free, Dortmund will be laughing all the way to the bank.
2. Sell Manuel Akanji for as much as possible
The only other move rumored for Dortmund the rest of the window is a potential sale of 26-year old Swiss center back Manuel Akanji. He joined Dortmund in January of 2018 for just under $24 million, and has since totaled 158 appearances. He has scored four times and assisted twice. Akanji still has a contract with Dortmund through the 2022-23 season as it stands. So, Dortmund could still make a good deal of cash off a sale, given reports he does not wish to extend his stay in Dortmund.
It's worth noting that while at the beginning of May there was rumors of interest from Manchester United, Arsenal and Juventus, those rumors have seemingly completely evaporated. It was Dortmund themselves who revealed that Akanji wouldn't sign a new deal. It's possible that this radio silence on the transfer front means well for an extension. But if not, Dortmund should reportedly be able to command close to $30 million for him in a sale to anyone. Whether that be in Serie A or the Premier League despite the lack of leverage available to them given his contract length remaining.
As things stand currently, accounting for the arrivals of Süle and Schlotterbeck, it seems more likely than not that Akanji will leave this summer. The aforementioned pair probably earn the lion's share of starts for Edin Terzic this season. This means less play time for Akanji, who has started in 10 of the last 14 matches for his country at the international level. This means Akanji will likely be looking for as much playing time as he can get ahead of the World Cup in November. That is a trend we're seeing all over the footballing landscape this summer.
