Dortmund's 1997 hero looks to inspire Asian youngsters

Malaysian champions Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) are reportedly forging a partnership with Borussia Dortmund -- and Dortmund's one-time Champions League hero hopes that many other Asian clubs will embrace the Bundesliga giants.

Dortmund's youth academy is headed by former attacking midfielder Lars Ricken, who scored the Black and Yellows' decisive goal in their 1997 UEFA Champions League final victory over Italian heavyweights Juventus in Munich.

This week, Ricken was in Singapore where Dortmund have set up a regional office. He talked about the club's push into Asia, just over two months after the return to Signal Iduna Park of Japan's Shinji Kagawa from Manchester United.

Sources tell ESPN FC that Dortmund and Malaysian Super League club, JDT, are discussing ways of working together, having met in Malaysia last month.

Dortmund are perceived to be Germany's fresh upcoming footballing force as opposed to the towering and stately presence of global superpowers Bayern Munich. The club, therefore, believe that the relatively young Southeast Asian football audience could develop an emotional bond with them, thanks to the attractive high-tempo passing and pressing style adopted by manager Jurgen Klopp. Of course, Germany's World Cup victory at Brazil 2014 also helps.

Other long-term regional initiatives in the pipeline for Dortmund include partnerships with Southeast Asian government agencies and a potential match in the Singapore Sports Hub stadium during the European summer break.

Talking to ESPN FC, the club's international head of business development Benedikt Scholz explained that a robust digital strategy is at the core of their operational strategy for the region.

"We are the new superpowers from Germany, the World Cup champions," said Scholz. "We are perceived as young and fresh and therefore have a synergy with the age-profile of the Asian football audience. We play an attractive style of football and have regional presence in our first team such as Kagawa, Ji Dong-Won [South Korean striker] and Mitchell Langerak [Australian goalkeeper]. We cannot take all our Asian fans to live the match day experience at our home ground, the Signal Iduna Park. But we can create easy and fast access for them to the club through the digital platform."

Scholz said that according to data provided by their global partner, sports gaming company EA Sports, Borussia Dortmund are among the five most popular European clubs in Asia when it comes to young people embracing new technology.

"Asian sport consumption is increasingly turning to the mobile and gaming platforms reflecting the generational profile of the region's sports lovers," said Suresh Letchmanan, the club's Asian business head. "Therefore, we believe we will be at the forefront of the digital sports explosion in the region in the future."

Dortmund's global shirt sponsor Evonik and kit supplier Puma, both of whom have regional bases in Singapore, will help in branding initiatives in the region. The Bundesliga's media rights marketing arm, DFL Sports Enterprises, has an Asian office based out of Singapore and will work closely with the club to achieve strategic branding goals.

After Kagawa, perhaps the best regional ambassador for the club is Lars Ricken. From the time he was 20 in 1997, Ricken's life has been intertwined with the ebbs and flows of his only club, Dortmund.

Ricken scored the goal that secured victory for Dortmund in the 1997 final within 16 seconds of having come on as a substitute. But his career wasn't always full of memorable moments. After earning 16 Germany caps, he started a two-year long absence in 2005 due to a cruciate ligament injury.

That same year, Dortmund, the only publicly-listed club in the German stock exchange, were on the verge of bankruptcy. Their share value plummeted by 80 percent in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and they imposed a 20 percent pay cut on all of their players.

However, the club were resuscitated financially towards the later part of the previous decade. Dortmund's revival coincided with the arrival of tactical genius, Jurgen Klopp. The club claimed back-to-back Bundesliga wins in 2010-11 and 2011-12 and finished runners up to rivals Bayern Munich in the all-German UEFA Champions League final in May 2013. As the Youth Academy head, 38-year-old Ricken will have a key role in developing local Southeast Asian talent.

Speaking to ESPN FC in Singapore, Ricken emphasised the importance of scouting Asian players for Dortmund. "I have been to Japan in 2013 as the youth academy head. I've also visited Thailand a few times. Asian youngsters have very good technical skills and can become as good as Kagawa if given the right professional guidance," said Ricken.

"The German system is the best to impart such professional training to Asian youngsters. The best example of this would be the 2013 Champions League final. Among the players who started that night for both teams, ten were products of the German youth system. If Mario Goetze had not been injured for Dortmund and Toni Kroos and Holger Badstuber had started for Bayern the number would very well have been 13," said Ricken, a local Dortmund boy who cut his teeth at the same youth academy which he is currently heading.

Ricken was in Germany's 2002 World Cup squad on Asian soil following an impressive season as Dortmund's won the Bundesliga. But national coach Rudi Voeller did not pick him for any matches in Korea and Japan as the Germans lost in the final to Brazil.

Ricken is looking forward to the next professional chapter with an Asian theme. He would love to create the first Southeast Asian global star through the Dortmund youth academy. Ricken says he has learnt from the best and wants to pass the torch to a generation of emerging talent in football's fastest growing market.

"Mathias Sammer was my roommate when I was a youngster at Dortmund," said Ricken. "Sammer was the ultimate professional as were my other teammates Stefan Reuter and Jurgen Kohler, both of whom have won the World Cup, the Champions League and the Bundesliga. They would be in the training complex on time even during the off-season. They refrained from alcohol consumption during match days and while training. They slept on time. These are all small but important things if one has to be a successful professional footballer."

Ricken also reminisced about another victorious 1997 Champions League teammate -- the now Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert. "Lambert was also a very focused man, just like Sammer," said Ricken. "Both were tactically very evolved, and I am not surprised that Paul got into management. I hope he does well at Villa and goes on to manage a bigger club in the future."

Hans-Joachim Watzke: Marco Reus not drifting away from Borussia Dortmund - Borussia Dortmund are completely debt free

Hans-Joachim Watzke has told Ruhr Nachrichten that Marco Reus has not yet decided his future, but Borussia Dortmund's CEO is confident the Germany international will stay at his hometown club.

Reus, 25, missed Die Nationalmannschaft's last two games of 2014 with minor ankle problems, but could return for Dortmund in their match at local rivals Paderborn at the weekend.

Reus played 45 minutes in a test match against minor league side Havelse earlier this week and also completed full training sessions in the days that followed, with BVB coach Jurgen Klopp telling a news conference on Thursday that "Marco looks fit to play."

Dortmund, who are 15th in the Bundesliga -- and trail the Champions League qualifying positions by nine points -- will still be without centre-back Mats Hummels and long-term absentees Nuri Sahin, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Oliver Kirch, who Klopp says "are not as close as Reus" to full fitness.

The forward can reportedly trigger a 25 million-euro release clause at the end of the season, and despite being chased by a host of Europe's top clubs including domestic rivals Bayern Munich, Dortmund have not given up hope that Reus will stay at the Westfalenstadion.

"It's a fact that [Reus] identifies with the city, and even more so with BVB. There is a lot we can put in balance," Watzke said. "Marco is a great guy and he knows what he has here.

"I don't have the impression that he has drifted away from BVB for just a centimetre. Of course, we have set a date on which we want clarity, but this won't be in the upcoming weeks.

"We have other things to worry about right now. We need to get out of the relegation zone together, and then we'll see what happens this season. We also talk about a position, taken by admittedly a very important player. But BVB does not depend on [him]."

Watzke reiterated that Dortmund are now debt free, and could go without European football next season, saying: "That would not throw Dortmund back unlike in the past. Economically BVB are stronger than ever."

Still, a return to Champions League could be the main argument to convince Reus of staying at the club.

"BVB are still optimistic," Matthias Dersch of Ruhr Nachrichten told ESPN FC. "But it all hinges on the sporting development."

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