Borussia Dortmund’s International Champions
Winning national league titles, domestic cups and continental honours is the bread and butter of professional footballers at the highest level.
But to represent your country is the ultimate dream for many.
To win a major international tournament with your country is something else entirely.
Bringing success and pride to your nation is the pinnacle – establishing your homeland as the best on the continent or even in the world.
Throughout the 114-year history of Borussia Dortmund, 21 players have managed to do so.
A club steeped in tradition and culture, hundreds of international footballers have pulled on the black and yellow shirt.
Eight Bundesliga titles. Five DFB-Pokals. Six DFL-Supercups. A UEFA Champions League. A European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Despite the club’s many successes, only 21 players have tasted international glory while with ‘die Borussen’.
Sébastien Haller became the latest last week when his 81st minute strike ensured that Ivory Coast would win the African Cup of Nations on home soil.
From the AFCON to the European Championships and the World Cup, here is a breakdown of every BVB player to win international honours while at the club.
Sébastien Haller
Haller’s story is truly remarkable. The striker arrived at Signal Iduna Park in 2022 to fill the boots of prolific number nine Erling Haaland.
But after a cancer diagnosis, the Ivorian was sidelined for several months.
Upon his return, Haller enjoyed a fruitful spell of goal-scoring form as Edin Terzic’s side surged to within touching distance of the Bundesliga title.
The former Ajax man is yet to score this season since the Pokal third round win over TSV Schott-Mainz in August, but he went to AFCON and scored winning goals in both the semi-final and final against Nigeria.
Dortmund gave their AFCON winner Sébastien Haller an epic welcome back 🖤💛
(via @BVB)pic.twitter.com/1oIvxBtxlf
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 15, 2024
His Dortmund teammates gave him a rapturous reception when he returned to training.
Giovanni Reyna
The CONCACAF Nations League has had two finals thus far in its short existence.
Both tournaments, which are contested by all North and Central American nations, were won by the USA.
In the inaugural 2021 final, the Black and Yellows’ very own Giovanni Reyna had a hand in two equalisers for the USMNT as they came from behind to beat Mexico.
Reyna, who joined Nottingham Forest on loan last month, then set up both goals in the 2023 final against Canada.
👏 The honor of Player of the Match goes to Giovanni Reyna! 🌟🎉
🇺🇸 @usmnt | #CNLFinals23 pic.twitter.com/T1GdIEk0Vr
— Concacaf Nations League (@CNationsLeague) June 19, 2023
Raphael Guerreiro
Across the Atlantic, in the UEFA Nations League, Raphael Guerreiro helped Portugal to win the inaugural 2019 tournament.
The versatile current Bayern Munich man started and played the full 90 minutes of both the Selecao’s semi-final win over Switzerland and final victory over the Netherlands.
Matthias Ginter
The FIFA Confederations Cup was a tournament contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships, the World Cup champion and the host nation (of the following year’s World Cup).
The only Borussia Dortmund man to win this competition, that was abolished in 2017, is Matthias Ginter.
A winner of the tournament’s final edition in 2017, Ginter played all but one match as Germany lifted the trophy in Russia.
Mitchell Langerak
The most recent Asian Cup winner to play for ‘die Schwarzgelben’ is Australian goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak.
Despite all of his international caps coming in international friendlies, Roman Weidenfeller’s former understudy still received a medal when the Socceroos won on home soil in 2015.
Erik Durm, Kevin Großkreutz, Mats Hummels & Roman Weidenfeller
A year earlier, BVB’s last World Cup winners reached the pinnacle of the game.
The club’s homegrown quartet of Erik Durm, Kevin Großkreutz, Mats Hummels and Roman Weidenfeller were all included in the Germany squad that became champions in Brazil.
Neither Weidenfeller, Durm nor Großkreutz got a kick for Joachim Löw’s side but they won’t mind at all.
A star-studded German side that tore the hosts apart at the semi-final stage had a rock to rely upon at the back.
One of world football’s most imperious defenders at this point, Mats Hummels played six of ‘die Mannschaft’s seven matches in those finals.
A stalwart for ‘die Borussen’, the 35-year-old netted twice in Brazil: against Portugal in the group stages and the winning goal against France in the quarter-finals.
He played a major role in the nation’s triumph, helping to keep Argentina out in the final across 120 minutes.
Shinji Kagawa
Before Langerak lifted the Asian Cup with Australia in 2015, Signal Iduna Park was home to another winner of the previous edition four years earlier.
Midfield diamond Shinji Kagawa played every match for 2011 champions Japan before missing the final due to injury.
Along the way, the Dortmund great had picked up two goals and two assists, almost single-handedly taking the Samurai Blue past Qatar in the quarter-finals.
Mohamed Zidan
Meanwhile, before Haller’s AFCON triumph in 2024, the club’s only previous winner was Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan.
Zidan played every match as Egypt stormed to a seventh title – as part of a ‘three-peat’ – netting against Algeria in the semi-finals, while assisting three other goals throughout the tournament.
This was Zidan’s second successive AFCON title, having already lifted the cup in 2008; he moved to North Rhine-Westphalia from Hamburg that summer.
Matthias Sammer, Steffen Freund, Jürgen Kohler, Stefan Reuter & Andreas Möller
Borussia Dortmund’s most recent European Championship winners came in Germany’s 1996 squad.
In the club’s first golden era under Ottmar Hitzfeld, many of the team that won successive Bundesliga titles and the 1997 UEFA Champions League went to England with the national team.
Matthias Sammer 🚀 pic.twitter.com/xISFtabQoR
— 90s Football (@90sfootball) February 17, 2024
Stefan Reuter and Steffen Freund played four times each, Jürgen Kohler played just once while Andreas Möller played five times and Matthias Sammer played every match.
Legendary figure and club icon Sammer, who won the Ballon d’Or that year, scored the winner in the quarter-finals against Croatia.
The sweeper also netted in the group stage, while Möller also contributed a goal and an assist.
Frank Mill
Möller remains the only BVB player to win two different international honours while at the club; he also won the 1990 World Cup with West Germany alongside striker Frank Mill.
Kohler and Reuter were also victorious at Italia ’90 but were not with ‘die Borussen’ at the time.
Mill didn’t make a single appearance at the finals, while Möller played twice.
Flemming Povlsen
The Black and Yellows also had a Euros winner in 1992: Denmark’s Flemming Povlsen.
The forward, who retired at just 29 in 1995 as a Borusse, grabbed three assists as the Danes lifted an unlikely first major title.
Eike Immel & Miroslav Votava
West Germany were also victorious in Italy at the 1980 European Championships.
Goalkeeper Eike Immel was an unused goalkeeper in Jupp Derwall’s squad while a 23-year-old, Czech-born Miroslav “Mirko” Votava played the second half of their final group game – a 0-0 draw with Greece.
Heinz Kwiatkowski
Finally, the first ever Borussia Dortmund man to taste glory with his country was another West Germany international.
Heinz Kwiatkowski lifted the famous Jules Rimet trophy at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.
Across a 14 year spell in Dortmund, the goalkeeper played approximately 300 times for the club.
At the ’54 finals, Kwiatkowski played back-up to Toni Turek in goal and made one appearance in the tournament – an 8-3 defeat to Ferenc Puskas’ Hungary.
With the home Euros approaching in the summer, can BVB add to this list?
The likes of Niklas Süle, Julian Brandt and Niclas Füllkrug would love to win it on home soil – which would be Germany’s first win at the European Championships in almost 30 years.
Julian Nagelsmann could call on several Dortmund men for his first major finals.
They will take on Gregor Kobel’s Switzerland in Group A.
Salih Özcan’s Turkey will face 2016 winners Portugal in Group F.
Meanwhile, in Group D, Marcel Sabitzer’s Austria will take on Donyell Malen, Ian Maatsen and the Netherlands.
With the likes of France, Spain, Italy and England also at the finals, it seems set to be a very competitive tournament.
But there’s every chance the Black and Yellows will have a first European Championships winner since 1996.
