Philosophy

Continuing our philosophy

Working with young players has played a key role in the history of Borussia Mönchengladbach. The legendary Gladbach team of the 1960s and 70s caused a sensation with their exciting attacking football and made the club and the city famous across the globe. Even in the years since the end of Borussia’s golden age, the club has continued to bring young and emerging talents into the first team. For example:

  • Lothar Matthäus
  • Stefan Effenberg
  • Marcell Jansen
  • Mahmoud Dahoud
  • Marc-André ter Stegen
  • Julian Korb
  • Tony Jantschke
  • Patrick Herrmann

Today, Borussia considers it important that the club sticks to this philosophy and continues to develop players using our own academy. The promotion of youngsters into the first team is an important part of Borussia’s philosophy, as it always will be.

Foundations for the development of youth

At Borussia, young players receive a footballing education which is divided into three stages:

  • Foundation level: U9 to U13 
  • Development level: U14 to U16 
  • Performance level: U17 to U23

The final stage of a player’s development is the U23 squad. However, player promotion in the Borussia academy is unrelated to age and is instead focused on the development of the player. This means that our youngsters are appropriately challenged and therefore progress as best they can. Through our academy we aim to help the individual players as well as the team as a whole. Our focus on education and developing talent is clearly reflected by the success of the first team.

However, in order to have the best possible footballing education, it is also important that our young players are able to compete at the top level. The youth teams must remain in the highest league possible and player promotions are made with this aim in mind.