Borussia Dortmund have become accustomed to their best players being signed by the Premier League heavyweights and it looks Erling Haaland will be the next to be snapped up.
Manchester City have reportedly agreed terms with Borussia Dortmund’s talisman as Pep Guardiola’s side look set to trigger his £63million release clause.
The Mail report that Haaland would become the highest paid Premier League player on a reported £500,000-a-week.
In what is likely to be the 21-year-old superstar’s penultimate game in front of the Signal Indua Park fans, the Norwegian phenomenon scored a hat-trick in Dortmund’s 4-3 loss to Bochum.
Haaland, who was one of Mino Raiola’s clients, has scored 85 goals from 87 games for the Bundesliga giants.
With Haaland likely to be on the move this summer and Jude Bellingham the next Die Schwarzgelben player to be lined up a big-money move, we take a look at nine former Dortmund players who were signed by Premier League clubs…
Jens Lehmann
Arsene Wenger signed the German international in July 2003 as a replacement for David Seaman who joined Manchester City.
Lehmann made 200 appearances for Arsenal, 80 of which were clean sheets and he won the Premier League and FA Cup during his time in north London.
The 2002 Bundesliga winner re-joined the Gunners in March 2011 after having two years at Stuttgart, but he made just one Premier League appearance before retiring four months later.
Tomas Rosicky
After costing Dortmund £18m – a Bundesliga record – when he arrived from Sparta Prague in 2001, Rosicky signed for Arsenal in the summer of 2006.
The Czech Republic international made 246 appearances under Wenger in which he won two FA Cups.
But as talented as the creative midfielder was he struggled with injuries throughout his time in England.
Rosicky scored three goals against Tottenham which all came in wins against Arsenal’s fierce rivals.
Shinji Kagawa
Sir Alex Ferguson signed the Japanese star from Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund for £12m in the same summer Manchester United signed Robin van Persie.
Kagawa only spent one season playing under Ferguson before the Scotsman announced his shock retirement at the end of the 2013 campaign.
The attacking midfielder was only at Old Trafford for two seasons before returning to Dortmund, but he did win a Premier League trophy and has a top-flight hat-trick to his name (Norwich City, March 2013).
Ilkay Gundogan
The German midfielder was Pep Guardiola’s first Manchester City signing after being bought from Dortmund for £20m in June 2016.
The 31-year-old has had to overcome some serious injuries throughout his career, but he is very much a key part of Guardiola’s Citizens side.
The box-to-box midfielder has played 249 matches for the Etihad side and has scored 47 goals and produced a further 33 assists.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
The Armenian was brought to Old Trafford by Jose Mourinho in July 2016 and arrived at Manchester United in the same window as Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Mkhitaryan spent one full season at the Theatre of Dreams, in which he scored 11 goals, including United’s second in the Europa League final win against Ajax, and a stunning acrobatic effort at home against Sunderland.
In January 2018, the attacking midfielder formed part of a swap deal which saw Alexis Sanchez move to Manchester and Mkhitaryan move to Arsenal.
The 33-year-old is currently into his third season at Roma and has been reunited with Mourinho.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Arsenal signed the Gabonese striker from Dortmund for a club record £56m in January 2018.
After scoring 141 goals in 213 games for the German giants, Aubameyang went on to score 92 goals from 163 matches for the Gunners.
But with the speedy 32-year-old and Mikel Arteta butting heads, Arsenal’s former captain joined Barcelona on a free transfer in January.
Since joining Xavi’s Catalans, Aubameyang has scored 11 goals from 18 games.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos
The Greek international was brought to the Emirates by Unai Emery in July 2018 for an undisclosed fee after making 186 appearances for Dortmund.
The centre-back made 69 appearances for Arsenal before joining Olympiacos on a free transfer in January 2021.
After Emery’s departure it was clear that Sokratis didn’t form a part of Arteta’s long-term plans.
Christian Pulisic
Chelsea signed the American forward for 64m euros (£58m) in January 2019, but loaned him back to the German club until the end of the season.
It was the highest fee paid for an American player, but the winger’s time in England has been blighted with injury setbacks.
Pulisic may have won the Champions League with the Blues but he has struggled to establish himself as a regular under Thomas Tuchel amid the competition for places.
Jadon Sancho
After being unable to land Sancho the previous summer, Manchester United finally got their man for £73m.
The former Manchester City youngster arrived at Old Trafford having scored 50 goals and provided 64 assists from 137 games for Dortmund.
It’s been a difficult first season at United for Sancho and he’ll be hoping to kick on and produce the devastating form he showed with great regularity in Germany under Erik ten Hag.