Just before the hour against Augsburg, in front of the usual packed house of 81,365 supporters, Luca Reggiani scored for Borussia Dortmund. The sheer joy on the 18-year-old defender’s face resonated with Paul Schaffran back at the academy.
"Getting our young players into the first team gives everybody hope," he tells Your Site. Schaffran is the academy director at Dortmund. Talking to him at their hotel in Liverpool ahead of a development fixture, it is clear that Reggiani is part of a trend.
Samuele Inacio, another 18-year-old Italian, made his Bundesliga debut against Bayern Munich in February. "He has already showed he is ready." The precocious Mathis Albert, 16, debuted against Freiburg on Sunday. Mussa Kaba, 17, will not have to wait long.
"He has been with us since he was 11 and I rate him very highly." The other three were transferred into the academy. "The idea is to build players from scratch but you need both pillars." And Dortmund offer something else. "They know there is a pathway here."
Inacio came from Atalanta, while Reggiani arrived from Sassuolo. "In the case of Luca, look at the average age of centre-backs in Italy. Many of them are above 30 so it is pretty hard for an 18-year-old centre-back to get the minutes that they need at that level."
The idea of Dortmund as a finishing school is not exactly new. Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham both moved to the Ruhr to fast-track their journey to stardom. But the demand for results forced some changes in first-team recruitment in recent seasons.
Couple that with competition from elsewhere and Dortmund have been compelled to go even younger in their bid to unearth gems. That puts more onus on Schaffran's team to polish them. The mentality at the academy has completely changed in order to do so.
"We changed our vision, our style of how we want to develop players," explains Schaffran. "In the past, we pretty much focused on winning. But winning a game at under-17 level means nothing to me if we are not developing a Bundesliga footballer."
He adds: "Our approach now is the exact opposite of what it was before. We want to give the players the hardest challenges possible at youth level so that it makes it easier for them to succeed at the end of the process. It is a massive change in our thinking."
According to Schaffran, Dortmund have the youngest under-17 squad in Germany and the youngest under-19 squad too. They have the youngest squad at the Premier League International Cup. They will not be winning the trophy. "And it is all deliberate," he says.
"We are not doing it just because it is nice to be the youngest but because you need to be over-challenged to reach the next level. If we under-challenge them for a long period, they will not adapt and not develop how they could if they were challenged all the time.
"That is key. How fast are you able to adapt to new challenges, new circumstances? The game will be faster, for sure. So, deal with it. Adapt to it. The game will be more physical. So, find your solution. The game will be more complex, maybe, but you have to adapt.
"With adaptation comes less efficiency. Every time you are in an adaptation phase, you will not have the same impact on the game. And so, the chances of winning a game at your age level are being reduced. But the chance for high development is increasing."
The introduction of bio-banding has been part of this refocusing. Because Dortmund want players to be challenged at the right level for their development, they are using ultrasound analysis to discover the true skeletal age of the players in their academy.
It proved a revelation. Six years ago, 35 per cent of their academy was made up of early developers with 60 per cent in the normal range and no more than five per cent of the group were late developers. "That had nothing to do with talent." It was about bias.
"The biggest learning from bio-banding was not for the players, it was for the coaches and scouts," Schaffran explains. "It was about educating them. They now look at players completely differently to how they were looking at them just two or three years ago."
Those coaches and scouts who were being swayed by the players who were dominating games within their age group have been taught to think twice. "That 14-year-old kid who is being bullied off the ball but has the talent? In the long term, it is going to be okay."
Schaffran uses the example of one player, who he does not want to be named publicly, who would have been rejected under the old system. "He was slower than everyone." Now, having developed at his own speed, there is hope that he could go all the way.
"I thought about quotas," Schaffran reveals. "Instead, we tried education." It worked. "This year is the first year that we have a standard distribution of players - 15 per cent early developers, 70 per cent in the normal range and 15 per cent late developers."
Committing to the individual is not always easy for the group. Inacio and Albert were impressing for the under-19s. "So they had to go. They needed the next challenge." Albert, in particular, stands out for his adaptability given his journey this season alone.
He was part of Dortmund's squad at the Club World Cup and appeared for the United States at the Under-17 World Cup. He has been with Dortmund's under-19s and under-23s, competing at home and abroad. "So many environments. He keeps stepping up."
Schaffran admits: "It is hard on the team. They lose their most valuable players. Inacio and Albert had scored many goals. Luca had been the leader. Luca had been the leader. If I just wanted them to win they would have stayed. That is not how we judge our academy."
But the priority is development and with Ricken, a former academy chief at Dortmund, now making the big decisions for the first team, there is hope that the pathway remains open. "There are going to be the opportunities there, the space for these players."
Schaffran works closely with Ricken. "If there is a squad planning meeting for the first team, I am always invited to those meetings. We talk about the youth players." Indeed, it was Ricken himself who helped bring many of them to the club. "That makes it easier."
No wonder he was thrilled when he saw Reggiani's face after that goal against Augsburg. "Luca was back at the academy celebrating with the under-12-to-15s the other day," says Schaffran with pride. Dortmund's conveyor belt of talent is up and running again.
