BVB didn’t want to lose any obvious time. The contractual relationship between Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA and the employee Niklas Süle has been in effect since July 1, 2022, and on July 1 the club’s own social media channel promptly posted the first pictures of the defender in the BVB jersey, and then from the first video interview with the press departmentthen from the first printed interview in the club magazine.

It’s not as if Süle was the only player Borussia signed this summer, on the contrary. The club operates a large-scale roster reshuffleIn addition to Süle, the German internationals Nico Schlotterbeck and Karim Adeyemi are new in black and yellow, but of course you can understand why the club is immediately putting the 1.95 meter man in the shop window.

Süle is still a special transfer for two reasons. On the one hand, because he moved from Munich to Dortmund and not the other way around. And anyone who now formally points out that this also applied to the players Mats Hummels and Mario Götze in the recent past is ignoring the fact that both had previously taken the opposite direction. Sule has never played for Dortmund.

And on the other hand, because the Süle transfer has been accompanied by more or less open and violent communication skirmishes since the beginning, from which one recognizes that the sovereignty of interpretation plays a major role here. Süle or his representatives speak of it in different terms respect and appreciation, which he was not given in Munich, and he also takes up the topic in his first interview for BVB. “In my career, despite all my sporting successes, I was not always respected as I think I deserved. In the talks with BVB, this respect was shown to me immediately and very credibly.”

FC Bayern, on the other hand, spread the thesis that appreciation and respect are meant more in a pecuniary sense. “You can all forget the fairy tales that he earns less in Dortmund than in Munich,” said Supervisory Board member Uli Hoeneß at the championship celebrations at Marienplatz. Towards the end, the conflict escalated to such an extent that Süle’s absence on the 34th matchday resulted in an open dispute. Hoeneß called the behavior “catastrophic”, Süle countered that this had been agreed with the coach.

Bayern Munich’s management and team apparently judge Süle’s value differently

Irrespective of this, FC Bayern would of course not lose a player to Dortmund that one would “absolutely” want to keep in the sense of “absolutely” and if you keep that in mind, then you get a picture that meaningfully links all statements. Namely that the assessments of the value of Niklas Süle for FC Bayern were different in the Niklas Süle and FC Bayern parties – at least in management.

Süle was very important in the Munich team, he played with players like Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich when he was young, captain Manuel Neuer publicly regretted his departure and said on behalf of the team that the change was “annoying”. And that Süle – 27 years old and experienced in the Champions League – could have earned more at another club, possibly in England, than in Dortmund is not a bold statement either.

With the transfers of the summer, BVB reports an old Hoeneß motto

With the Schlotterbeck/Süle defense, depending on the formation and day also in combination with Mats Hummels, BVB also repeated an old Hoeneß principle in this part, so that the best German players have to play in Munich. After Sule’s departure with the four central defenders Benajmin Pavard, Dayot Upamecano, Lucas Hernandez and Tanguy Nianzou, FC Bayern’s defensive language is now finally French.

Keyword communication: Süle is aware that he is now taking on a different role in this area as well. He is 27 years old and can no longer hide. And he is apparently also aware of the accusations made about his physical fitness behind the hand held. “The people who bring this into the world always only see Niklas Süle, who honestly admits that he likes to eat a burger or drink a beer. Yes and? Do you think other professionals don’t do that? They just don’t talk about it,” he says in the members’ magazine.