BVB fans puzzled: Mats Hummels back on the Signal Iduna Park pitch | OneFootball

Oops! Mats Hummels, a BVB icon and actually retired since April 2025, was spotted again yesterday on the pitch at Signal Iduna Park, where football was also being played. However, this was not a comeback by the long-time Dortmund man. Here’s the explanation.

While the BVB stadium pitch is serving today as a “black-and-yellow weekly market,” yesterday it was used for its actual purpose. Not, however, by BVB’s professionals and some potential opponent. Instead, a tournament for amateur teams took place yesterday at the former Westfalenstadion, made up not exclusively, but to a considerable extent, of BVB fans. The event has been held for many years and goes by the name “Südtribüne Championship,” whose title likely carries a certain amount of prestige in amateur football circles.

The crowd of amateur players was surely delighted to spot a genuine BVB idol in Mats Hummels among those present, though not among the participants. Ruhr 24 gives the reason for that. Hummels’ son Ludwig was also at the stadium, although Ruhr 24 does not know whether he took part in the “Südtribüne Championship” or not.

Photo: IMAGO

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Of course, Mats Hummels also made himself available to the many fans for photos together, and as is typical for him, showed no hesitation about mingling with the football crowd in attendance. Unlike many of the participants, however, Hummels was not seen wearing a BVB shirt, instead dressed in ordinary casual clothes.

After his only appearance for FC Bayern Munich in 2008, Mats Hummels chose to move to Borussia Dortmund. From 2016 to 2019, he was once again under contract with his youth club in Munich, but spent the rest of his career in Germany with BVB. That left him with 367 Bundesliga appearances, the second-most for BVB in this competition behind Michael Zorc. With BVB, he won the German championship in 2011 and 2012, and in 2012 also completed the double by winning the DFB-Pokal.

His brief spell at AS Roma from 2024 onward was less successful than his total of fourteen seasons at BVB, after which Hummels hung up his boots. So yesterday marked his return to the place where he spent so many years, captured in numerous souvenir photos – without him becoming active on the pitch again.

That had only happened back in March, when he turned out for a special BVB team.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.