| Dortmund’s passage to India (and how they handed the Bundesliga to Bayern)  T-shirts proclaiming Borussia Dortmund the winners of Bundesliga 2023 (Source: Twitter) “There is something in the air in Dortmund.” Twitching his fingers, Benedikt Scholz could feel it. The virtual media interaction with the academies’ managing director of Borussia Dortmund was to announce the club’s youth development partnership in India but happening one day before their final Bundesliga game, it couldn’t have started any other way. “A special moment is coming up tomorrow,” said Scholz. He spoke of the 81,000 that would pack Signal Iduna Park, of the ‘Gelbe Wand’ or Yellow Wall. “We need to take the last step together,” Edin Terzic had said. How could Dortmund let this fan of the city’s football club who was now its manager down? On match day, hours before kick-off, BBC reported of the throng that had gathered at Borsigplatz, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” T-shirts and scarves with ‘Deutscher Meister 2023’ emblazoned were being sold; some were even seen in Cologne, 91km down the road where serial champions Bayern Munich were playing.  The victory parade route had been planned. It would end at Borsigplatz, the borough where Borussia Dortmund (BVB) were founded in 1909. Ever since they had beaten Augsburg and Bayern had lost to RB Leipzig, this had been Dortmund’s league to lose. Surely, Juergen Klopp’s nerves notwithstanding, nothing would come in the way of Dortmund ending an 11-year wait for the Bundesliga? Certainly not mid-table Mainz up against a team that had won their last 11 home games? At the weekend, we saw two final days of a league season that were possibly the best advertisements of Bundesliga and Premier League. There was Dortmund’s wild-eyed desperation for goals after looking overawed for the first 30 minutes; Bayern being stunned by a Cologne equaliser which meant Dortmund would win even if they lost; a goal from Sebastien Haller that was ruled off-side; Jamal Musiala’s wonder-strike that won it for Bayern and Niklas Sule’s late goal that meant nothing. Just as Harvey Barnes and Wout Faes’ meant nothing for Leicester City. Like in Cologne, where Bayern’s players huddled around Thomas Mueller’s phone to watch the last minutes of the game in Dortmund, at Leicester, Victor Kristiansen’s hand-held was the cynosure.  Double celebration for Bayern Munich after winning the men’s and women’s league titles (Source: FC Bayern) After the Champions League final in Istanbul, where AC Milan failed to hold on to a three-goal advantage, Andrea Pirlo had felt like quitting. “Nothing made sense anymore,” he wrote in “I Think Therefore I Play”. Pirlo said Milan disappeared from the pitch for some time and termed it “non-performance anxiety.” “In time, the truly painful sentence was realising that we were entirely to blame.” Every Dortmund player would be going through “the brief, intense, shitty period” Pirlo spoke of. Sixth at the start of the year and nine points behind, Dortmund had grabbed every opportunity an underwhelming Bayern, who announced the removal of CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic as the team celebrated in Cologne, had provided. Having recovered from testicular cancer, Haller had been crucial to that turnaround with nine goals and five assists in 19 games. “I would never have believed it six months ago,” he had said. And then he missed a penalty which could have made it 1-1 on Saturday. They were down 0-2 by the 24th. If the possibility of this happening had crossed Scholz’s mind or that of Julia Farr, who is Borussia Dortmund’s lead in the Asia-Pacific, they hid it well. “India is one of our markets,” said Farr. Bayern had tried that over 10 years ago but realised the market wasn’t ready. Maybe, when it comes to the world’s most populous nation, Borussia Dortmund will get one over the club they gifted the 2022-23 league title to. Through a three-year tie-up with AMM Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the $7 billion Murugappa Group, Dortmund will come to India. The foundation runs the Murugappa Youth Football Academy in Chennai where 250 boys in the 10-17 age-group train. “At MYFA and the AMM Foundation, our endeavour has always been to use sport as a vehicle for social change and social inclusion. In BVB, we find a like-minded partner who resonates with that goal, and… together we will improve the lives of not only the footballers but the coaches as well,” said M.M. Murugappan, the group’s former executive chairman. As of now, the focus will be on Tamil Nadu, said Veeru Murugappan, head of sport AMM Foundation. Given their reputation for producing stars – Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, Gio Reyna, Karim Adeyemi, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Jude Bellingham, to name some – Dortmund would be the right fit for developing talent. But the club gave no guarantee of taking players from India to their academy. Neither is a visit from Terzic’s team expected in the near future. | 
