SUMMARY
- Borussia Dortmund will face Real Madrid in the 2023-24 Champions League final.
- However, in a bizarre twist of fate, the German club will earn more money if they lose the competition.
Borussia Dortmund fans surely cannot believe the success that their club has enjoyed in recent times. The German team has reached the finals of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in over a decade, which has surely exceeded everyone’s expectations.
However, it has now been revealed that their happiness might turn into utter confusion pretty soon. And this might be because of a Real Madrid player who was once a very revered figure around the Signal Iduna Park.
Dortmund will receive around €25m from Real Madrid as a transfer bonus if Jude Bellingham wins the Champions League.
On the other hand, they will receive €20m from UEFA if they win the Champions League. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/U0UB0akXUT
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) May 9, 2024
Jude Bellingham has been a key figure of the Real Madrid setup in the 23/24 season and has contributed a lot in their Champions League run. The Englishman is set to face his former side for the first time since his departure from the club in the summer transfer window of 2023.
Bellingham has started causing problems for Borussia Dortmund way before the final itself. It is now revealed that his contract at Real Madrid has a strange clause that will surely annoy the Dortmund fans.
The German team is set to earn a huge bonus of $21.5 million for winning the final to be held at London’s iconic Wembley Stadium. However, the club will also earn around $6 million extra, if their former player Jude Bellingham lifts the trophy with Real Madrid in his first season, due to a contract clause. This has certainly put Borussia Dortmund who need to make a choice between some extra cash or achieving an unimaginable feat.
Borussia Dortmund has the opportunity to create history against Real Madrid
It seems highly unlikely that the club would want to lose the UCL final for them to earn the transfer bonus of $26.9 million. Money won’t be a factor for the German side in the final, as the Borussia Dortmund players have a chance to deliver the first UCL trophy for the club in over 2 decades, after years of heartbreaks.
The club’s only UCL victory came in the 1996/97 season when the team defeated Juventus in the final. Dortmund had reached the final in the 2012/13 season as well where they squared off against arch-rivals FC Bayern Munich. Coincidentally that final was also held at Wembley Stadium, same as this season. Borussia Dortmund, however, lost the final 2-1 in a cruel fashion, via a late Arjen Robben winner.
Arjen Robben 🔥🔥🔥
🗓️ 2013 UCL Final
⚽️ Scores the winning goal
🏆 Bayern crowned champions
🏅 Awarded Man of the Match🥳 Happy birthday, Robben! 🎈#UCL | @FCBayernEN | @ArjenRobben pic.twitter.com/x3wu4iT73r
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) January 23, 2019
Trophies have anywhere been always out of reach for the German side, who bottled the Bundesliga title on the last matchday of the previous season. Under circumstances, the UCL final in 2024, will be a do-or-die situation for the fairly young side. Borussia Dortmund players have also received extra motivation from their long-standing player Marco Reus, who has announced his departure from the club at the end of the season.
Borussia Dortmund’s hero from the second-leg victory against PSG is confident of a win in the final
Mats Hummels was certainly the key for the German side against the French giants, Paris Saint Germain in the semi-finals of the 23/24 season. The defender was adjudged man of the match in both legs, as he stood like a wall in the heart of the Dortmund defense. Apart from making some crunching tacks, the German defender also scored the decisive goal that handed out a 1-0 victory (2-0 on aggregate) in the 2nd leg.
It seems that Borussia Dortmund looks very pumped after the semi-final victory. The players are confident of a victory, in the final against Real Madrid, which has been their aim since the group stages of this UCL edition.
This confidence brimmed in Mats Hummels’ words when he said (via BBC), “Since the second match of the group stage, we’ve believed we can prevail – and I don’t see why we shouldn’t win at Wembley,” said the 35-year-old. “We were able to take so much pace out of the game and atmosphere out of the stadium. That was our recipe for success.”
↩️ Borussia Dortmund-PSG Man of the Match: Mats Hummels.
↩️ PSG-Borussia Dortmund Man of the Match: Mats Hummels.
…like fine wine. 🟡⚫️🍷 pic.twitter.com/lgGnkMZy2L
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 7, 2024
The defender also joked about his goal tally in the European competition. He said, “I’ve scored far too few Champions League goals in my career, just five. Now is a good time to add to that number.”
Borussia Dortmund takes on Real Madrid in the final of the UCL on June 1, 2024, at the Wembley Stadium. It would be interesting to see who emerges victorious from this exciting duel.