For a long time this year, Borussia Dortmund’s last game of the season, at home against Mainz on Saturday, looks special because it will be Jude Bellingham’s farewell.
The football gods have other ideas and now it looks like it will be special for a more important reason – Dortmund is poised to win the Bundesliga.
Hardly anyone believed Bayern would stumble into the race over the line. Thomas Tuchel was seen as a safe pair of hands after Julian Nagelsmann was sacked following the mid-March defeat at Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen.
And when Bayern went 3-0 up inside 23 minutes against Dortmund in Tuchel’s first game in charge, the writing was on the Westfalenstadion’s famous Yellow Wall: It would be them again — for the 11th time in a row season.
Now with 90 minutes left to play, Dortmund just need to ‘win again’, in the words of their sporting director, Sebastian Kehl. Mainz have won just two of their past 10, but those victories came against Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig so they have shown themselves capable of finding another level against better teams.
For a long time this year, Borussia Dortmund’s last game of the season, at home to Mainz on Saturday, looks special because it will be a farewell to Jude Bellingham (above)
But now it could be the match that wins Dortmund an unlikely Bundesliga championship title
Dortmund received more than 300,000 ticket applications for the 80,000 capacity ground
There will be no complacency from Dortmund, however, and if they win, they won’t have to check the score in Bayern’s game in Cologne. They might get a boost when Bellingham returns. The England international missed last week’s trip to Augsburg with a knee problem but should play some part on Saturday.
The 19-year-old, with eight goals from midfield, has been one of the stars of this potential title win regardless of the part he played on the final day, but there are plenty of other stories behind a wonderful great campaign.
Sebastien Haller will win the league just one year after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. He was signed last summer from Ajax along with Karim Adeyemi as the club did their best to wisely reinvest the money they got from Manchester City for Erling Haaland.
Replacing the Norwegian was always going to be a two-man job and because of Haller’s health problems he missed the first half of the season.
Adeyemi weighed in with nine goals in 19 starts but it was nine in 14 starts for Haller since his return after the World Cup break that really pushed Dortmund over the line.
Then there is head coach Edin Terzic, who is only 40 and grew up watching Dortmund as a fan. And his sporting director Kehl, who was only three years older and won the title three times with Dortmund as a player.
It’s a young project that will, in part, be derailed over the summer by Bellingham’s exit.
Real Madrid had to wait for the end of the Bundesliga season before closing their negotiations for a player who came through Birmingham City’s youth ranks. They have told the German club they want to pay no more than €100m (£87m).
Bellingham is set to join Spanish giants Real Madrid this summer in a massive move
Dortmund’s fee is closer to €140m (£122m) but the difference will be recouped in the form of add-ons and bonuses as negotiations continue.
Before Bellingham goes to the ‘Galactico’ presentation at the Bernabeu in front of around 60,000, he will enjoy his moment at the summit in Germany.
The club’s 80,000 Signal Iduna Park can be sold out three times, with Dortmund receiving 300,000 applications for tickets for today’s game, and Borsigplatz, where the trophies are celebrated, is ready for a party tomorrow
The hardest victories are always the sweetest.
For all he achieved afterwards, Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest managerial feat was building the Aberdeen side that won the European final against Real Madrid.
Similarly, he won plenty of silverware afterwards but none more so than Jose Mourinho winning the Champions League with Porto in 2004.
Bellingham will win a wardrobe full of medals at Real Madrid.
But what he was on the verge of doing at Borussia Dortmund was difficult to surpass during his career at the club.
Vinicius is the real victim, forget petty feuds
Vinicius Junior will miss Real Madrid’s final away game of the season, at Sevilla, having been left out of the squad with a knee problem.
It comes at the end of a week in which he took a level of responsibility beyond his 22 years to stand up to racism.
He will now watch with interest, and probably with skepticism, to see what happens next. This seems to be a turning point in Spain this week but the self-interest of those dominating the debate is still slowing down progress.
Valencia want to make themselves victims after a five-game partial ground closure (reduced to three on appeal).
While Real used the situation to complain about the referees, and other clubs criticized Real after Vinicius’ red card was overturned.
If tribalism wins, the fight against racism cannot.
If you really want football to be a sacred space where the prejudices that ruin the lives of so many outside the sport can never set foot, then speak up.
If you’re just beating to your own drum, then pipe down.
Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior (centre) is the real victim in Spain’s latest racism row
Little to celebrate at the PSG party
PSG win Ligue 1 tonight if they get a point at Strasbourg. And then the celebrations can begin. Just kidding.
What festivals? It was another lackluster home triumph in the shadow of Kylian Mbappe’s likely departure in 2024 and Operation Get Rid Of Neymar.
And this will allow almost immediately the real business of preparing for next season, starting with the dismissal of coach Christophe Galtier.
Jose Mourinho remains favorite for the job but Luis Enrique is still available, while highly-rated former River Plate coach Marcelo Gallardo is also set to embark on a European managerial career.
Napoli are also looking for a new coach, with Luciano Spalletti wanting a sabbatical and Roma expecting to lose Mourinho so a replacement is also needed.
Nothing stays the same for very long, even at clubs where silverware is won.
Even elsewhere success can be enjoyed a little before the revolving door begins to spin.
In Paris, do they have that too?
Although there was little to celebrate at the likely French champions Paris Saint-Germain’s party
When Spain won Euro 2012 — their third title in a row — by beating Italy 4-0 in the final, they lined up without the No 9 and burst into centre-forward territory to score the second goal was Jordi dawn
The Barcelona left back announced he will be leaving the club this week after 11 seasons.
He will almost certainly take a Saudi Arabia retirement package, with Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi likely to join him.
Messi was one of the first to pay tribute to him and it was no surprise – Alba was Messi’s greatest partner on the pitch with 23 assists.
Barca have lost their strongest attacking left-back, although everything we’ve seen from 19-year-old Alejandro Balde suggests they have more than enough replacements.
