Borussia Dortmund and defender Mat Hummels on Wednesday morning agreed to extend the player’s contract, which was set to expire on 30 June, by another year. “I’m really happy that Mats Hummels is staying at Borussia Dortmund for another year. He identifies strongly with our club. BVB and Mats simply belong together,” said CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
With the exception of a three-year spell in his home city of Munich, Mats Hummels has played for Borussia Dortmund since the 2007/08 season and has made 468 of his 586 club appearances in total in a Black & Yellow shirt. With BVB, he has won the German Championship in 2011 and 2012 plus the DFB-Pokal in 2012 and 2021. He became a World Cup winner with the national team in 2014 while a Borussia Dortmund player. “With his experience and leadership, it’s very good that Mats will still be available to our young team next season,” sporting director Sebastian Kehl explained.
Even at the age of 34, Hummels is still one of the absolute key performers. He has played in 29 Bundesliga matches and made four appearances in both the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League this season. “He’s a very, very important player for this team because he gives it a lot in terms of hierarchy, in terms of leadership,” Kehl added.
“Everyone knows how much fun it is for me to play at Signal Iduna Park with our fantastic fans. I didn’t make the decision easy for myself. There was a long weighing-up process. Now, at the end of the season, I can say: I’m still really up for another year,” said Hummels. But he also emphasised: “The focus now goes straight back on the game against Mainz on Saturday. We still have 90 intense minutes ahead of us. After that, we hope to celebrate something big together.”
Should Borussia Dortmund in fact hold the “Bundesliga Shield” aloft, Mats Hummels would join the group of five players so far who have won the German Championship with BVB three times. The others are Helmut “Jockel” Bracht, Wilhelm “Willi” Burgsmüller (both 1956, 1957, 1963), Lars Ricken, Stefan Reuter (both 1995, 1996, 2002) and Sebastian Kehl (2002, 2011, 2012).
The new home jersey.