Just before the hour mark in the match against Augsburg, with the familiar roar of 81,365 fans echoing through the stadium, 18‑year‑old defender Luca Reggiani found the back of the net for Borussia Dortmund. The sheer elation on his face was instantly relayed back to the club's academy, where academy director Paul Schaffran watched the celebration on a screen. "When our youngsters break into the first team it gives everyone a surge of optimism," Schaffran told Sky Sports. The conversation took place in a hotel in Liverpool before a development‑team fixture, and it quickly became clear that Reggiani is part of a broader pattern at the club.
Another 18‑year‑old Italian, Samuele Inacio, made his Bundesliga debut against Bayern Munich in February and impressed the coaching staff. "He has already shown that he belongs at this level," Schaffran noted. Six‑year‑old prodigy Mathis Albert, only 16, earned his first senior minutes against Freiburg last Sunday, while 17‑year‑old Mussa Kaba is on the verge of following suit.
"Mussa has been with us since he was 11 and I rate him very highly," Schaffran said. The three teenagers mentioned above were all recruited from outside the club. "Our philosophy is to develop talent from the ground up, but we also need the solid pillars that come from external signings. The key is that the players understand there is a clear pathway here." Inacio arrived from Atalanta, while Reggiani was signed from Sassuolo.
Schaffran explained the strategic advantage of bringing in a young centre‑back: "In Italy the average age of centre‑backs is well over 30, so an 18‑year‑old rarely gets the minutes he needs to grow. At Dortmund he can play regularly and develop faster." The idea of Borussia Dortmund as a "finishing school" is not new – the likes of Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham used the Ruhr club as a springboard to global stardom. However, recent pressure to deliver results forced the club to rethink its first‑team recruitment policy, leaning more heavily on home‑grown talent. Coupled with fierce competition from other European clubs, Dortmund has been compelled to look even younger, hoping to uncover the next generation of gems.
This shift places a greater burden on Schaffran and his staff to refine these prospects. The academy’s mindset has therefore undergone a radical overhaul. "We rewrote our vision and the way we develop players," Schaffran explained.
"In the past we were almost obsessed with winning at every youth level. But a victory at under‑17 level means nothing if the player does not become a Bundesliga professional." He continued: "Our new approach is the opposite of the old one.
We deliberately give our youngsters the toughest challenges possible at youth level so that the transition to senior football becomes smoother. It represents a massive change in our thinking." According to Schaffran, Dortmund now fields the youngest under‑17 side in Germany, as well as the youngest under‑19 squad.
Their team in the Premier League International Cup is also the youngest in the competition. He admits they are not there to win trophies, but to test the limits of each player.
"We are not doing this just to be the youngest team. We believe that over‑challenging players forces them to adapt, and that adaptation is essential for reaching the next level. If you under‑challenge them for too long they will stagnate and never reach their full potential," he said.
He elaborated on the importance of adaptability: "How quickly can you adjust to new challenges, new circumstances? The game is getting faster, more physical and more complex. Players must learn to cope with that. During an adaptation phase performance may dip – you might win fewer games – but the developmental payoff is far greater." A cornerstone of this new philosophy is bio‑banding, a practice that uses ultrasound scans to determine the true skeletal age of each academy player.
This allows Dortmund to place youngsters in groups that match their biological maturity rather than just their chronological age. The results were eye‑opening. Six years ago, roughly 35% of the academy were classified as early developers, 60% fell into the normal range and fewer than 5% were late developers. Schaffran realised that this distribution reflected a scouting bias toward players who physically dominated their age group, not necessarily those with the greatest long‑term talent.
"The biggest lesson from bio‑banding wasn't for the players, it was for our coaches and scouts," he said. "It forced them to reassess how they evaluate talent. Now they look at a player’s underlying potential rather than just who looks strongest at 14." He gave an example of a player – whose name is kept confidential – who would have been dismissed under the old system because he was slower than his peers.
Given time to develop at his own pace, that same player now has a realistic chance of progressing to the senior squad. Schaffran admitted that the club considered imposing quotas to ensure a balanced mix of early, normal and late developers, but instead they focused on education and awareness. The result this year is a roughly even spread: about 15% early developers, 70% normal, and 15% late.
Individual focus sometimes conflicts with team performance. When Inacio and Albert excelled with the under‑19s, they were promoted to the next level, leaving the younger side without its star players. Albert, in particular, has shown remarkable adaptability.
He featured in Dortmund’s Club World Cup squad, represented the United States at the Under‑17 World Cup, and has toggled between the under‑19 and under‑23 teams, gaining experience in a variety of competitive environments. "It is tough on the squad when you lose your best talents," Schaffran acknowledged. "If we only cared about winning at youth level, we would keep them. But our metric is development, not trophies." The pathway to the first team remains open thanks to the close collaboration between Schaffran and former academy chief Michael Ricken, who now makes key decisions for the senior side.
Schaffran is routinely invited to first‑team squad‑planning meetings, where the progress of youth prospects is discussed. Ricken himself played a pivotal role in signing many of the current academy stand‑outs, making the transition smoother for both the players and the club’s hierarchy.
Schaffran recalled the moment he saw Reggiani’s celebratory grin after the Augsburg goal: "Luca returned to the academy and celebrated with the under‑12 to under‑15 groups. It was a proud moment for everyone involved." The evidence suggests that Dortmund’s revamped academy model is bearing fruit.
By deliberately exposing young players to higher‑level competition, using scientific tools like bio‑banding, and prioritising long‑term development over short‑term results, the club has re‑established its reputation as a conveyor belt of talent ready for the demands of modern football.