These young players stood out at the training camp | OneFootball

“Mussa, Samu and Mathis, are part of our development programme and are making positive progress – both with their performance on the pitch and with their reliability off pitch. They work very hard every week on the rigorous programme that we have set up for them,” says Mathias Schiele. He has been Head of Player Development/Individual Coach Licence at BVB since a year and a half and has closely accompanied the three youth players since then. “You can tell they are extremely focused on their goal. That's why it was obvious they deserved the opportunity to join us at the training camp.”

They are not guests but have to show right from the start that they truly want to be part of things. For Schiele this means: “Not shying away from any challenges, in order to learn how robust professional football is compared to youth football. Constantly showing their strengths and realising that you suddenly have limits that you don't normally have in youth football.” The training camp with the first team is another step in introducing the young players to professional football. What they learn in Spain, they are expected to put into practice next week with the U23. While Kaba has been part of the second team since last summer,  Inacio and Albert are now moving up to the Regional League team.

Praise from the coach

But most of all, the three young players have used the seven days at the Costa del Sol to draw attention to themselves and impress Niko Kovac's coaching staff. Schiele is also very pleased: “The three of them have persevered the whole week and performed very well at the training camp, so they received positive feedback from the coach. They are very happy but also very tired, because it's been very intense for these lads.“ In professional footbal, the pace is much higher, the passes are much sharper, the spaces are taken up more quickly, and there's less time for individual actions. “Overall, it is much more complex,” explains Schiele.

Kaba, Albert and Inacio,  have taken the next step towards professional football at this training camp. More steps are expected to follow. “There's nothing more I would wish for, then for our own talents to get playing time with the first team in the second half of the season,” says sporting director Sebastian Kehl.  “In the end, they are responsible for that with their own performance. It's not handed to you on a silver platter, nothing is promised, but there are definitely possibilities.”

Sixteen-year-old Mathis Albert has played for Borussia Dortmund since 2024 and was already part of the BVB squad at the Club World Club in the summer of 2025. With 16 years and 27 days, the American was the youngest player in the tournament during BVB's first group stage, although he didn't play.

Mathias Schiele: “Mathis is a very determined, impulsive and strong winger, who loves one-to-one challenges. He constantly tries to draw in opponents, and attack and outmanoeuvre them with his tricks – and he has an incredible drive towards the goal.”

Samuele Inacio, son of professional Brazilian footballer Pia, has also played for BVB since 2024 and participated in the Club World Cup. The 17-year-old Italian excelled in November at the U17 World Up, scoring four goals and providing two assists in seven games and was named “Man of the Match” in each of the three group matches. He had previously been top scorer at the U17 European Championship.

Mathias Schiele: “Samu is a very creative player who sees spaces and is very good at judging how often en how long he can hold onto the ball. He is a great goal threat and makes plenty of runs into the penalty area. As link between build-up play and the final period, he can control the game very well during moments of transition.”

Mussa Kaba, currently 17-years-old, moved to the U23 in the summer of 2023 at the age of 16. He was sidelined with an injury during the first half of the season and is expected to get more playing time in the second half of the season. The midfielder has worn the black and yellow since 2021 and won the German U17 Championship in the 2023/24 season.

Mathias Schiele: “With Mussa we have a player who can dictate the game from the first line. He has incredibly composure on the ball and is very good at defending forward, so he knows very well when to step up and when to take a step back. Strategically, he's a very strong player.”Christina Reinke