Even if Borussia Dortmund had won the DFB Pokal, Bundesliga, and UEFA Europa League, keeping Erling Haaland always felt like a long shot. The Norwegian arrived in Dortmund in January 2020, and since then has gone on to become one of the leading scorers in European football. However, BVB have limits in what they can afford to throw at a player, and also have limits as to the kind of squad they can build. Those limits, sadly, are not compatible with keeping arguably the best young forward in the world.

With that in mind, Dortmund have been speaking to a trio of strikers to take over from Haaland in the summer of 2022. The striker will most likely depart for England at present, with reports suggesting Real Madrid cannot afford both Haaland and Kylian Mbappe. So, he will likely depart for a club like Manchester City, and provide Dortmund with the funds they need.

BVB will push for one of Karem Adeyemi, Luka Jovic, or Timo Werner. The club is believed to be willing to spend as much as €50m on a new striker, though that fee would likely only be applied to Werner. In the case of Adeyemi, the young German has not done enough outside of Austria to justify exceeding around €40m. For Jovic, his poor spell in Spain means that his only true run of form came with Eintracht Frankfurt in his first spell.

As such, he would more of a project for Dortmund and thus they are unlikely – or unwilling – to break the bank for him. Jovic has struggled massively to replicate the form he showed when paired with Ante Rebic and Sebastian Haller.

Speaking of Haller, Dortmund also hold the Ivorian international in high regard.

Dortmund expecting a busy summer of changes

The German giants have fallen far from their sporting objectives in recent years. The 2020-21 season ended in success with the DFB Pokal win, but this season – the first under Marco Rose – has been a failure. The club crashed out of the cup competitions with a whimper – losing in a competitive but favourable group in the Champions League, to second-tier St Pauli in the cup, and to Scottish champions Rangers in the Europa League – and are 8 points behind FC Bayern in the title race.

Rose, though, was long coveted by BVB and most reports suggest they will keep the coach on for next season. Instead, there will be a push to rebuild the squad and move on from high-earners. The likes of Mats Hummels, Thomas Meunier, and Thorgan Hazard could all be moved on. Axel Witsel will leave in the summer at the expiry of his deal.

Others who have performed well in spurts but are on huge wages, like Emre Can, could also be sacrificed albeit not prioritised. For Dortmund, ripping up and starting again whilst building around the youthful qualities of the likes of Jude Bellingham appears to be the long-term plan.