Mislintat reveals: BVB missed this superstar over Immobile | OneFootball

After Lewandowski’s departure, Borussia Dortmund pinned their hopes on Ciro Immobile – and ended up with a costly misunderstanding. Years later, Sven Mislintat reveals that BVB missed the chance to sign a future global star as a result.

Ciro Immobile’s transfer to Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2014 is still regarded as one of the biggest misunderstandings in the club’s recent history. Now former chief scout Sven Mislintat has openly explained how it happened – and why BVB made a momentous decision at the time.

After Robert Lewandowski left for Bayern Munich, Dortmund faced a huge challenge. Instead of relying on promising talents as usual, those in charge changed their strategy. “When we let Robert Lewandowski go, for the first time in our search for his replacement we followed a different transfer philosophy,” Mislintat recalled in an interview with transfermarkt.de. BVB signed Immobile, then the top scorer in Serie A, hoping for maximum security.

But that exact approach turned out to be a mistake. “With Ciro Immobile, we bought the top scorer in Serie A and tried to play it safe,” said Mislintat. The outcome, however, was sobering: “In Italy, he was sensational before and after that – with us, he just didn’t work at all. That’s actually impossible when you see him score goals.”

BVB made the wrong choice: Immobile instead of Sadio Mané

Immobile never lived up to expectations in Dortmund. He did score ten goals in 34 competitive appearances, but his overall play was underwhelming and he had little impact on the team’s attacking game. On top of that, his time at BVB coincided with a disastrous season on the pitch, at the end of which even coach Jürgen Klopp left the club.

Photo: IMAGO

The explosive part: while Dortmund chose Immobile, the club passed on another attacking player who later rose to world-class status. Sadio Mané, who was still playing for Red Bull Salzburg at the time, was also on BVB’s shortlist, but moved to Southampton instead and later developed into one of the world’s best forwards at Liverpool.

For Immobile, the Dortmund chapter ended after just one season. Via Sevilla, he rediscovered his old form and later became one of Europe’s most prolific strikers again, especially at Lazio. BVB, meanwhile, was left to learn from an expensive experiment – and in the process may have missed out on a future global star.

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