Bayern, Dortmund and the so-called “Predatory Market” (EN)

Original text posted in portuguese in February 2021 for FC Bayern München Brasil portal

In the last week, with the confirmation of the transfer of Dayot Upamecano to Bayern Munich, new conversations about a “predator of the Bundesliga” returned to circulate. Then, we also had the announcement that Marco Rose, current coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach, will go to Borussia Dortmund next season, which also provoked several notes and criticisms.

In 2018 I even wrote a post trying to demystify the predatory myth in the Bundesliga. I believe that now is the time to analyze the market situation in Germany, and also in Europe, once again, to clarify this point and make it clear that neither Bayern, nor Dortmund, nor anyone, are hostile or harm other clubs with unfair practices.

Upamecano is the newest Bavarian signing within Germany

We know that every time Bayern announces a prominent player within the Bundesliga, we will listen to the old conversation that the Bavarians seek to weaken rivals and the league to get stronger. However, everyone forgets that this is an extremely common practice in any country in the world — including Germany — as we can see in the table below:

In the table, the number of signings and, in parentheses, the amount spent in millions of euros

Just by the numbers of the top five German clubs in recent years, we can see that in numbers of signings, Bayern is only above RB Leipzig, which has a very different strategy than the other four clubs — due to their ties to Red Bull and having climbed the German first division only in 2017.

Looking at final figures — a point sometimes advocated by some people for a Bavarian villainization — Bayern is still third, spending almost half what Borussia Dortmund spent within Germany.

And, even within the narrative that Bayern always seeks to “weaken direct rivals”, it falls apart. Looking at the last transfer windows, the biggest investments came from outside Germany: in 17/18 it was Tolisso and Coman, in 18/19 we had Davies, in 19/20 Hernandéz and Coutinho and in 20/21, Sané and Roca.

Meanwhile in Dortmund, the direct rival in recent years and constantly pointed out as a “victim” in the market: in 17/18 they had Toprak (Leverkusen), Phillip (Freiburg) and Dahoud (Gladbach), 18/19 were Diallo (Mainz), Delaney (Bremen) and Wolf (Frankfurt), and on 19/20 they had the pack of Hummels (Bayern), Schulz (Hoffenheim), Hazard (Gladbach) and Brandt (Leverkusen), all starting and important players of direct competitors within the Bundesliga . That, without forgetting Marco Rose, Gladbach coach, confirmed this week.

In the summer of 2019 Borussia Dortmund hired important pieces from four direct competitors, which was not demonized or harshly criticized.

Does this means that during all this time Borussia Dortmund were be the big villain of the Bundesliga? Of course not. Searching for players within the market is completely normal and happens in all countries. This practice is usually cheaper and with greater certainty of return. Even more so if we consider that culture, language and climate are factors that are not so quick to adapt in Germany.

Within Bayern itself we can draw quick parallels: most of the players who showed results more quickly were signings within Germany itself, we can directly compare players like Goretzka and Tolisso, Gnabry and Coman and even Pavard and Hernandéz.

Even looking outside Germany, this practice is also extremely common. We only analyze cases like Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City, Juventus, etc:

In the table, the number of signings within the country and, in parentheses, the amount spent in millions of euros

Within the nine clubs above, Bayern is the third who has spent the least and in number of signings is only the third who has hired the most players within the country. This further demonstrates how normal this practice is in the football world. This occurs not only in Europe, in Brazil we have the Flamengo team of 2019 as an example.

From 2014 to 2018 Liverpool signed six players directly from Southampton

Besides that, it’s obvious that the best players want to play for the best teams and earn higher salaries, but that does not mean that all players within Germany go to Bayern. In the last decade we have several examples of outstanding players who left their teams and and went to play outside Germany: Aubameyang, Gündogan, Xhaka, Werner, Havertz, De Bruyne, Özil, Thiago, ter Stegen, etc.

However, as we can see, the practice of a club looking for players that stand out within their league is quite common and it happens in all countries in the current market. And there is already a warning for those who think this market is unfair, with Brexit in the United Kingdom and the financial crisis due to the pandemic, most likely the acquisition of athletes within the country itself will increase much more. So, it is good to learn more and accept that this is how the world of football works.

Data and numbers taken from the Transfermarkt.de website