The BVB U19s will start the Final Round of the German Championship with two semi-final matches against Hertha BSC – on Easter Monday (11:00 CET in Berlin) and Saturday 15 April (11:00 CET) in Dortmund. “We know how tough it’ll be. But we will of course try everything to successfully defend the title,” assured head coach Mike Tullberg. Dortmund’s youngsters have been very successful in this competition in the past.

If they win, it would be the club’s first title hat-trick since the introduction of the Junior Bundesliga in 2003 and the BVB youngsters would add another chapter to the exciting success story that is “Borussia Dortmund and the German A-Junior Championship”. The Dortmund youngsters have won the trophy nine times, reaching the final 10 times in total. Only VfB Stuttgart, who have won the title 10 times and reached the final 15 times, are above BVB in the all-time table. FC Schalke 04 are some distance behind in third place (four titles).

After the first German A-Junior Championship final in 1969, which VfL Bochum won thanks to a 5-3 final victory over Hertha Zehlendorf, it took 25 years for the Black & Yellows to hold the trophy aloft for the first time. The team, coached at the time by Edwin Boekamp, spectacularly marched to the title in 1994. They qualified for the Final Round as Westphalian champions and subsequently won their round of 16 tie against Rhineland representatives, Eisbachtaler Sportfreunde, 8-1 and 4-0. They then eliminated the South Baden representative SC Freiburg by 4-0 and 4-1 scorelines, before claiming 2-1 and 3-1 victories over Bayer 05 Uerdingen in the semi-finals.

With 3,500 spectators watching on in Delmenhorst, the team then ran out 3-2 winners against Werder Bremen in the final. The goals were scored by Ibrahim Tanko (2) and Lars Ricken – two extraordinary youth footballers who played a major role in the senior team winning the German title a year later. They went on to form a centre-forward partnership known as “Baby-Sturm” (Baby-faced strikers) in their first Bundesliga campaign, the 1994/95 season, after first-choice forwards Stephane Chapuisat and Karl-Heinz Riedle were sidelined with torn cruciate ligaments.

Edwin Boekamp, the first title-winning coach, now works alongside Lars Ricken, the then goalscorer and now director of the Youth Performance Centre, in his role as Head of the Youth Department. Back in the 1990s, BVB did not have a Youth Performance Centre; the youth teams were effectively “homeless” and usually alternated between Mendesportplatz in Fredenbaum and Hoeschpark.

Five league titles in a row from 1994 to 1998

Borussia went on to win four more German Championship titles on the bounce: BVB ran out 2-0 winners in the 1995 final against Bayer Leverkusen with Michael Skibbe as the coach. Skibbe completed his hat-trick with final triumphs over Waldhof Mannheim (2-0, 1996) and 1860 Munich (2-1, 1997), before he replaced Nevio Scala as first-team boss in 1998. Edwin Boekamp then took over the reins again and steered Borussia’s A-Juniors to victory in the 1998 final, where they beat Bayern Munich (2-2, 2-1 on penalties). Daniel Rios, an assistant to U19 head coach Mike Tullberg, was among the scorers.

Borussia’s A-Juniors then went through a much quieter spell and did not make headlines at a national level again until 2009. With Peter Hyballa in the dugout and exceptional talent Mario Götze on the pitch, they qualified for the DFB-Pokal and German Championship finals. They lost the cup final on penalties to an SC Freiburg side coached by Christian Streich, before suffering a defeat to an FSV Mainz 05 team coached by Thomas Tuchel in the league.

The history-making 98 cohort

The 98 cohort, which included the likes of Dzenis Burnic, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Christian Pulisic, Felix Passlack and Amos Pieper, made more history from 2014 onwards. Having won the B-Junior Championship two seasons in succession, they then became the standard-bearers at A-Junior level too – first under the leadership of Hannes Wolf and then under the tutelage of Benjamin Hoffmann. They beat TSG Hoffenheim by a 5-3 scoreline in 2016 (goals from Jonas Anweiler (2), Janni Serra (2) and Felix Passlack), then defeated Bayern Munich in a penalty shootout at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK in front of 33,450 spectators a year later.

Benjamin Hoffmann guided his charges to the 2019 final too. Having gone in at the break 3-1 down to VfB Stuttgart in Großaspach, they turned the match around and won 5-3 thanks to goals from Paul Besong (2), Immanuel Pherai and Enrique Pena Zauner, plus an own goal. They had knocked out Western German champions Schalke 04 in the semi-finals (2-2, 2-0).

No German Championship finals matches took place in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mike Tullberg took over the coaching reins of the U19s in the spring of 2020 and scaled even greater heights. With the Dane, who is an excellent developer and trainer of young talents, on the sidelines, BVB did not lose a single Bundesliga game. He guided the team to the DFB-Pokal and Championship finals in the 2021/22 season. The Black & Yellows suffered a 3-1 loss to VfB Stuttgart in the cup, but then came back from a 1-0 deficit against Hertha BSC in the Championship final in Berlin. Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Bradley Fink scored the goals as the Black & Yellows ultimately celebrated a 2-1 victory.

Now they want their 10th title. But a major obstacle first stands in their way in the shape of Hertha BSC. Mainz 05 and 1. FC Cologne will face off in the other semi-final. (wiwi)