Borussia Dortmund continues to search for reinforcements for its professional squad. However, the squad planning for the club's reserve team is complete for now.

Ingo Preuß, the U23 sports director at Dortmund, told the Ruhr Nachrichten that he is satisfied with the signings made so far and that they don't need to add further players. He noted that this always depends on whether any player leaves the club, and that a lot can still happen until the end of August.

Once again, there has been considerable movement in the squad of the regional league team. One of the new signings is Takato Yamamoto, who recently generated some excitement among BVB fans and is currently accompanying the professionals on their trip to his home country of Japan.

Preuß explained that the signing came through the club's scouting department. He recalled that one of their scouts watched the U19 Nations Tournament in Wales in November of the previous year, where Takato caught their attention. The club subsequently analyzed him together, watched additional videos of him, and explored his contract situation. They then made contact at the beginning of the year, and interest was mutual on both sides, which is how the deal came about.

BVB: "Close dialogue" with Book and Blacha

Preuß finds comparisons between Yamamoto and BVB legend Shinji Kagawa to be inappropriate. He emphasized that Takato has a completely different player profile and that while it would certainly be nice if he had the same career trajectory, they are still far from that point.

While Preuß has been responsible for squad planning at Dortmund's U23 for 15 years now, there have been recent personnel changes at the management level of the BVB professionals.

Ole Book took over the position of sporting director following Sebastian Kehl's departure. David Blacha joined as his assistant. Preuß indicated that he maintains regular and very close dialogue with both of them. He noted that Ole brings an enormous wealth of experience from his work at Elversberg, and that they can only benefit from their mutual exchange as he provides valuable input. However, Preuß made clear that Ole's main focus is naturally on the professionals.