BVB has filled the vacant position of Head of Youth Development with what Managing Director, Lars Ricken, has called an “ideal appointment.”
The eight-time Deutsche Meister from the Ruhrgebiet have filled the position of Head of Youth Development.
Paul Schaffran, the current Head of Strategy and Development at Dortmund’s youth academy Hohenbuschei, will be promoted from 1 July 2025, BVB officially announced on Friday afternoon.
The thirty-eight-year-old has worked in BVB’s youth academy since 2021, initially as Head of Sports Science, and since July 2024 as Head of Strategy and Development. Before this, Schaffran was responsible for talent development in the youth academy, a cooperation project between the BVB’s academy and the Ruhr University Bochum for three years.
The position of head of the youth academy had been vacant since the promotion of Lars Ricken to Managing Director last year.
“Paul Schaffran has made a significant contribution to the implementation of innovative concepts at the Youth Performance Centre in recent years,” said Ricken. “These include the integration of bio-banding, in which players are grouped for training and matches according to their physical development rather than their age.
He also played a key role in the signings of Thomas Broich and Mathias Schiele. I am convinced that Paul, with his experience and strategic thinking, is the ideal person to promote the development of our young talents and prepare them for the challenges of professional football.”
Schaffran, who holds the UEFA B licence and holds a PhD in Sports Science, said: “I would like to thank Lars Ricken and the Borussia Dortmund management for their trust, I am very much looking forward to the new challenge from July. I am extremely motivated, together with our ambitious and passionate team to continue developing our successful youth work at the club.”
Schaffran further emphasised the need to focus on anchoring youth players in the first team: “Our goal here remains to bring talented youngsters who have trained with us into professional football and, ideally, in front of the yellow wall at Signal Iduna Park.”
In recent seasons, BVB have struggled to promote players from the U23s and U19s to the first team.
Though players like Lennard Maloney (Mainz 05), Steffen Tigges (1. FC Köln), Patrick Mainka (Heidenheim), Tom Rothe (Holstein Kiel) and Ansgar Knauff (Eintracht Frankfurt) have gone on to success with other Bundesliga teams, only Yousouffa Moukoko, who made 76 appearances in the first team, and Jacob Bruun-Larsen (29 appearances), have among youth players been able to establish themselves in the first team.
BVB can build on a formidable record at youth level, the club are the second-most decorated club in Germany at U19 level, with one less than VfB Stuttgart, who hold ten U19 German championship titles, at U17 level, Die Schwarz-Gelben hold 8 national titles.
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