Eyes on the prize: the character of Carney Chukwuemeka | OneFootball

When Carney Chukwuemeka picks up his smartphone, it reminds him of what he has set out to achieve this season at Borussia Dortmund. Each time he looks at the screen. Without fail. He always reconfigures his mobile phone during pre-season training: the 22-year-old Englishman sits down in the summer, writes a note with a list of his personal goals for the season and saves a screenshot of it on his lock screen. “For me, it’s just that I wake up every day and see it, and then I think: Okay, cool, that’s what I have to achieve. That motivates me more than if I just had the list in my notes. Every time I open my phone, I see my goals. And every time I achieve one of those goals, I tick it off,” Carney says in an interview.

We don’t know if “scoring a goal in the Champions League” is on his personal list. In any case, he achieved that milestone on 1 October 2025. In the match against Athletic Bilbao, Carney scored with his left foot in the 50th minute to make it 2-0. In front of the South Stand. “It was an incredible feeling. However, I only really realised it when I got home. After I scored the goal, I just thought, ‘Okay, cool, I scored a goal.’ But when I got home, I was totally overwhelmed. I scored my first goal in the Champions League! That was a real boost for me. The international break came at the wrong time after that,” he says with a shrug. But the knowledge that he had achieved this milestone motivated the Englishman in the following games.

The lanky yet assertive midfielder has settled in Dortmund. Not only because he went from being a loan player to a permanent member of Dortmund’s first team before this season – with a contract until summer 2030. But also on a personal level. He feels at home at BVB, trusts his teammates, the coaching team and also the club photographer Alexandre Simoes.

When Carney is welcomed to his photo studio at the Dortmund training ground, two burly security guards are standing by. The photographer explains his daring plan: he wants to photograph the man with the number 17 for BORUSSIA upside down. Carney doesn’t ask any questions. He immediately agrees. A minute later, he is hanging upside down in front of the camera. “Oh my God,” he exclaims as the two security guards hold him by his legs and let him dangle in the air. “Do you like it?” Alexandre Simoes asks the professional footballer and shows him the result on the small screen of his camera as soon as he has solid ground under his feet again. “Oh, wow,” beams the cover boy of this issue. His trust has paid off. The stunt was worth it.

Moving abroad, to a new country and a new league, has also paid off for him. How does he look back on February 2025 today? On the moment when he decided to leave the club he had loved since childhood and join Dortmund on loan? “I think for me it was simply a matter of getting away from everything and focusing entirely on myself. I had no doubts about going abroad. I’m pretty independent anyway and just wanted to concentrate on football and block out everything else.”

London remains his home. He makes that clear. But in Dortmund, he is learning to appreciate that the “buzz” as the British say, is not nearly as loud as in England's metropolis of over 10-million people. His father and mother now take turns visiting him in the Ruhr area. At every home game, one of them sits in the stands at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK and keeps their fingers crossed. Carney once described his relationship with his father years ago: “My father always tells me that I can achieve more, that I can be better. That the world is at my feet. He says I just have to keep going, stay focused, keep my feet on the ground and not let my previous success distract me.”

When Carney hears this quote today, he nods in agreement. “I believe you should never rest on your laurels. You should never be satisfied with what you have. For me, with my background, I have never been satisfied with where I was. It’s always been like this: I want more, I want more, I want more. My family is the same. That’s why this quote has shaped me to this day.”

Nevertheless, his still young career has also been marked by injuries, which have forced him to get back up again and again, to keep trying. When he scored his first goal for Chelsea in a league match against West Ham United in August 2023, Carney Chukwuemeka injured his knee in the same game and was sidelined for a long time afterwards. Pure joy and absolute despair – so close together. What helped him in such moments? His faith. “I grew up in a Christian home, and when I entered my early teenage years, everything started to make more sense to me and I began to feel God more clearly. Yes, it’s just something I started at a young age and it has grown more and more as I’ve gotten older.”

Added to this is his parents, who remind him not to get carried away. “When I joined Chelsea at 18, it all came at me pretty quickly. And to be honest, I got a little carried away. But I would say that in the past two years, I’ve matured in that regard. I would say I’ve also grown as a person.”

At the moment, Carney emphasises in the interview, he feels that BVB and he himself are growing at the same time. “I’m fit and feeling good physically. Personally, I feel that I’m making good progress and can now show more and more of what I’m capable of week after week,” says Carney, praising the noticeable team spirit: “As a team, I think we’re closer than ever since I’ve been here. I can feel the team spirit. The results are good. It’s definitely a good time to be playing for BVB.”

He is in constant dialogue with head coach Niko Kovac: “We get on well.” The topic of conversation is always the defensive side of things, Carney reveals. Because, despite all the appreciation he receives from the coaching team, growth at BVB will come in mastering all elements of midfield play. At least, that is the message Carney himself has received in his conversations with Kovac: “As an attacking player, you naturally want to focus on building up play, scoring goals and things like that. But there’s also the aspect of defending. And this: ‘For me, as an attacker, you are the first defender because you apply pressure.’ I just have to incorporate that more into my game, run more and also focus on that part of the game. Because the coach knows what I can do with the ball.”

The BVB fans know that too. At least since 5 April 2025. In Freiburg, the Englishman appeared in the starting line-up for the first time – and scored immediately. His path leads him straight to the jubilant away fans. A life journey to Dortmund, on a rather convoluted route: it began in 2003 with his birth in Eisenstadt, Austria, then led to England: Northampton, Birmingham, London. And now: Dortmund. Unusual. But for Carney Chukwuemeka, the Ruhr region in autumn 2025 feels like both a blossoming and a homecoming.

His smartphone beeps briefly during the interview. “Sorry,” apologises the 22-year-old, “I’ll put it on silent right away.” He preferred not to show us the list of his goals for the season. Too personal. But he does reveal one of his plans at the end: “I am convinced that we can win a trophy this season. And I believe we have the team to do it. At least, that’s my attitude: I’m convinced we can compete at the highest level. We have to go into every game with the feeling and the knowledge that we are on the level. So, yes: I want to win a trophy this year.”

It goes without saying that his entire family and all his friends from London would come to Dortmund to watch. Could the Ruhr region become something of a “home away from home” for him? “Yes, definitely. I’ve settled in well. I get on well with everyone. So, yes, the probability is quite high,” he says, adding with a laugh: “The weather here is no different from England.”