Marco Reus's all-time Borussia Dortmund XI
He may have scored more than 100 goals for the club and made it to a UEFA Champions League final, but there is no room for Marco Reus in the captain's own greatest ever Borussia Dortmund XI.
Dortmund born and bred, Reus has been in fine fettle in this, his eighth senior season at the club, plundering 12 goals and six assists in all competitions before the coronavirus-enforced break in play.
That has at least given the 30-year-old time to sit down with BVB's official Facebook channel to pick his all-time XI. Thomas Rosicky gets Reus's spot at No.10. Here are the others who made the cut…
Stefan Klos
Appearances: 339
Clean sheets: 114
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 1x Champions League, 1x Intercontinental Cup
Reus was a youngster in Dortmund's youth academy in the late 1990s when Klos was Die Schwarzgelben's undisputed first choice between the posts. Another Dortmund native, Klos had displaced Teddy de Beer in the 1991/92 season and earned cult status himself the following year as the "Hero of Auxerre" after his penalty save in France booked BVB's ticket into the UEFA Cup final.
Although Dortmund lost that showpiece to Juventus, they gained revenge in the 1997 Champions League final when Lars Ricken's chip helped them to a 3-1 win in Munich. Klos had kept clean sheets against Steaua Bucharest, Atletico Madrid, Auxerre and Manchester United on that run, and he left for another trophy-laden spell at Scottish club Rangers in 1998 as a hero in his homeland.
Lukasz Piszczek
Appearances: 354
Goals: 18
Assists: 64
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 2x DFB Cup, 2x Supercup
Watch: Piszczek's Top 5 Goals
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One of two members of Dortmund's current squad who makes the cut for Reus, Piszczek remains an important member of the team despite his 34 years and having Achraf Hakimi for competition in his favoured right-back position. The Pole has featured in 20 league games this term, scoring once, assisting three more, and contributing to eight clean sheets.
Signed on a free transfer from Hertha Berlin during Jürgen Klopp's reign at the club, Piszczeck's peak coincided with the Klopp era's. Ever-present when Dortmund won back-to-back Bundesligas in 2011 and 2012, Piszczek lined up behind Reus when Dortmund came so close to being crowned European champions for a second time, going down 2-1 to an Arjen Robben-inspired Bayern at Wembley in 2013.
Matthias Sammer
Appearances: 153
Goals: 23
Assists: 24
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 2x Supercup, 1x Champions League
An undoubted club legend, Sammer arrived at Dortmund from Inter Milan as a midfielder in 1993, but a season later he was repurposed as a sweeper by coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. The results were spectacular. Sammer won UEFA Euro 96 with Germany and that year's Ballon d'Or ahead of Ronaldo and Alan Shearer, and the following campaign lifted the Champions League as BVB captain.
Injury cut Sammer's Dortmund career short but he returned as coach in 2000 and led them to another Bundesliga triumph in 2002, becoming the youngest coach ever to lift the Meisterschale at 34. He is also one of just seven players who have won the Bundesliga as both player and manager.
Julio Cesar
Appearances: 116
Goals: 10
Assists: 3
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 1x Champions League, 1x Intercontinental Cup, 2x Supercup
Alongside Sammer at the back for much of that golden era for Die Schwarzgelben was Cesar, the Brazil defender who signed from Juventus in 1994 and left five years later with six more trophies to try and squeeze onto his glistening mantelpiece.
Also able to get forward and pose an attacking threat, Cesar nonetheless kept his powder dry compared to Sammer as one of the two defensive centre-backs, with Bodo Schmidt and then Jürgen Kohler for company helping create a yellow wall in front of the Yellow Wall.
Dede
Appearances: 398
Goals: 13
Assists: 56
Honours: 2x Bundesliga
The second Brazilian in Reus's line-up and the foreign player with the most appearances in Dortmund's history, Dede was a marauding left-back who signed from Atletico Mineiro in 1998, the year Cesar left on loan to Werder Bremen.
Leonardo de Deus Santos, to give him his full name, was 20 when he joined BVB and spent most of the next decade making the left flank his own whilst laying on an impressive number of goals. His farewell game - played in 2015 four years after leaving for Eskisehirspor in Turkey - attracted 81,359 fans to the Signal Iduna Park, a European record for a testimonial.
Michael Zorc
Appearances: 572
Goals: 159
Assists: 31
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 1x DFB Cup, 1x Champions League, 1x Intercontinental Cup
Now Dortmund's sporting director, Zorc was previously a midfielder for his hometown club who made his debut in 1981 and last appearance as a player in 1998. His 572 games for BVB are a club record some 119 clear of goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller, who has the second-most.
A long-time captain and penalty taker, Zorc also had a keen eye for goal from open play. He scored in double digits in seven seasons, including 15 goals each for three campaigns between 1994 and 1996. "Susi" may have had a haircut and moved upstairs since those halcyon days, but Reus picking him has nothing to do with kissing up to the boss.
Nuri Sahin
Appearances: 274
Goals: 26
Assists: 49
Honours: 1x Bundesliga, 1x DFB Cup, 1x Supercup
Dortmund may be one of the first clubs to benefit from the recent reduction in the minimum required age for Bundesliga players with 35-goal 15-year-old Youssoufa Moukoko waiting in the wings, but they have fielded a 16-year-old wonderkid before now.
Sahin was 16 years, 11 months and one day of age when he made his debut at the base of Borussia's midfield in a 2-2 draw with Wolfsburg in August 2005. Seven games later he also became their youngest scorer at 17 years, two months and 21 days in a 2-1 win over Nuremberg. Both remain Bundesliga records.
A pass master with a wand of a left foot, Sahin's 274 appearances for BVB fell either side of injury-hit spells at Real Madrid and Liverpool, and since 2018 he has been plying his trade with Bremen.
Jakub Blaszczykowski
Appearances: 253
Goals: 32
Assists: 52
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 1x DFB Cup, 3x Supercup
Forming part of Dortmund's Polish express up the right-hand side in front of Piszczek, "Kuba" was one of the players who best epitomised Klopp's Heavy Metal Football. A stocky but fast 5'9" winger, Blaszczykoswki could attack and defend from the front, his lively displays helping bring gegenpressing - winning possession back quickly - into the mainstream.
There was inspiration to go with the perspiration too, though. Blaszczykoswki provided two assists as Dortmund thrashed Bayern 5-2 in the 2012 DFB Cup final, ensuring that a year on from helping them to their first league title in nine years, they concluded the 2011/12 campaign with the domestic double.
Kuba returned to his native Poland with Wisla Krakow last year having spent the last few seasons at Fiorentina and Wolfsburg.
Thomas Rosicky
Appearances: 189
Goals: 24
Assists: 46
Honours: 1x Bundesliga
Reus would have been more than justified in putting himself behind the striker in his dream XI, but it's "Little Mozart" Rosicky who gets the nod. The two actually left Dortmund the same summer in 2006 - Rosicky to continue his career at Arsenal; Reus to rebuild his at Rot Weiss Ahlen and Borussia Mönchengladbach before returning to BVB in 2012.
Czech Rosicky had arrived from Sparta Prague as a then German-record transfer in 2001, and helped Dortmund to the Bundesliga title in his first season at the club. Although he never repeated that success, Rosicky averaged a goal or assist every 224 minutes he played with BVB over his five years with the club, despite wrestling with injuries.
Mario Götze
Appearances: 217
Goals: 45
Assists: 61
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 2x DFB Cup, 1x Supercup
Watch: Götze's Top 3 goals
Götze joined Dortmund as an eight-year-old and had helped them to back-to-back Bundesliga titles under Klopp before turning 20. A prodigiously talented attacking midfielder, Götze's understanding with Reus on the pitch was as strong as their friendship off it in their first spell together in the BVB first team.
After scoring a goal each in a 4-1 win at Ajax in the 2012/13 Champions League, Bayern legend Franz Beckenbauer reserved the highest praise, saying "at Barcelona Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi are building a triangle, but as a classic duo there's nobody better than the prolific Reus and Götze."
Bayern, of course, went on to win that season's Klassiker Champions League final in London. Götze then joined the record champions and scored the winning goal for Germany against Argentina in the FIFA World Cup final before returning to Dortmund in 2016.
Stephane Chapuisat
Appearances: 284
Goals: 123
Assists: 62
Honours: 2x Bundesliga, 2x Supercup, 1x Champions League, 1x Intercontinental Cup
Robert Lewandowski may have completed a dream Polish trio with Pizczcek and Blaszczykowski in the Klopp years, while Reus was good friends with his successor up front, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but it's another entry from the trophy-laden 1990s era who completes the captain's line-up: Stephane Chapuisat.
The Swiss international striker had been at Dortmund for four seasons before the silverware started matching up with his goals, but that first Bundesliga title in 1995 would have been unimaginable without him. Chapuisat had already bagged 12 goals in 20 games before rupturing his cruciate ligament that season, and BVB held on to win the league a point clear of Bremen.
"Chappi" scored double figures in six of his eight Bundesliga seasons, and although strike partner Karl-Heinz Riedle stole the headlines for his brace against Juventus in the 1997 Champions League final (while Chapuisat was replaced by scorer of the third goal, Ricken, on 70 minutes), that they got there at all was thanks in no small part to Chapuisat's three goals and three assists on the continent that season.
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