The trouble, when a club is as skilful at scouting talent, polishing it, and selling it on as Borussia Dortmund are, is that the old boys almost always come back to haunt you.
Some never seem to stop with their reminders that while Dortmund was their great launch pad, they can make it a punchbag too. When Robert Lewandowski scored the two goals that eliminated Dortmund from last season’s Uefa Champions League, he took to 29 – in 28 meetings – the total he had scored against his old club in the decade since he left Dortmund, aged 25, first for Bayern Munich and later moving on to Barcelona.
The previous European Cup campaign had taken Dortmund all the way to the final. They lost it to a Real Madrid galvanised by Jude Bellingham, who 10 months earlier joined Madrid, still only 19, from Dortmund for over €100 million.
Surveying elite football’s achievers and market-leaders has long been a bittersweet experience for Dortmund’s strategists, proud of a system that is as good as any at advancing individual careers and bringing in handsome transfer fees but reconciled to the fact those careers often soar higher elsewhere.
For Bellingham in 2024, read Ousmane Dembele in 2025. He was a Dortmund project, too, there for a single season before fetching a €100m-plus fee from Barcelona, who eventually let him go for barely half that to thrive at Paris Saint-Germain.
Dembele’s role in spearheading PSG’s first European Cup triumph last May helped him to the Ballon d’Or. Lewandowski was the leading goalscorer in last season’s Liga. Christian Pulisic, a Dortmund prodigy at 17, then a Champions League winner with Chelsea, scored more times than any AC Milan player in 2024-25.
And three months ago, Alexander Isak, whom Dortmund brought to Germany from Sweden aged 17 on a hunch that turned out to be wise – even if he underwhelmed in his few games for Dortmund’s first team – became, at 25, the most expensive player ever to be transferred between two clubs in the English Premier League, Newcastle United and Liverpool.
And that’s not to mention the footballer well on the way to being regarded as the finest, most valuable, most impactful graduate of the many 21st century stars to have worn Dortmund’s distinctive yellow.
Erling Haaland may have some catching up to do on Lewandowski’s mass of career goals but he is 12 years younger than the 37-year-old Pole. He may never fetch a transfer fee as high as Isak’s or Bellingham’s, but that would only be because Manchester City, who paid Dortmund €60m for Haaland in 2023, now have him on a contract until 2034.
This evening at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland lines up for the second time against his former club and even though more than three years have passed since the first reunion, it is still vivid in Dortmund minds.
It was an early autumn Champions League game and City came back from 1-0 behind, their match-winning goal a show reel highlight: Haaland launched himself high into the air, his body almost horizontal, a big blond karate kid connecting an outstretched left foot to a Joao Cancelo cross.
His nearest marker, Nico Schlotterbeck, wore the look of a man who believed there was no way anybody could reach Cancelo’s pass and instantly regretted the assumption.
Dortmund hope to have Schlotterbeck fit for this evening, and ready to partner Algeria’s Ramy Bensebaini in as tough an assignment as any in elite football: keeping Haaland at bay.
His current run of form is eye-catching even by the Norwegian’s standards. His brace against Bournemouth at the weekend took him to 17 City goals for the season so far, across the Champions League and domestic football, at a rate of a goal every 66 minutes.
He has already this season eased into the top 10 list of all-time Champions League marksmen, a roll of honour that has Cristiano Ronaldo (140 goals), Lionel Messi (129) and Lewandowski (105) in the podium positions. Among the 10, Haaland alone averages over a goal a game. Keep that up and his 53 goals so far would become a century in less than 50 further appearances.
Might he one day overhaul Messi and Ronaldo? “No, not all,” replied Haaland on Tuesday. “That’s far off. Nobody can get close to them two.”
“I had 57 [goals for club and country] one season,” he did point out, “but I don’t think about records. I focus on the next game. It’s how I need to think.”
His overall City ratio is just shy of dipping beneath a goal every 90 minutes and the one concern, voiced by City head coach Pep Guardiola, is that, so dazzling is his current form in front of goal that it might create a sense of dependency. Haaland has scored over 65 per cent of City’s goals in their two principal competitions – he has been rested for the early rounds of the League Cup – this season.
“He’s our key man,” acknowledges Guardiola, adding that Haaland’s influence is also growing in the dressing room. He is part of the ‘leadership group’ with whom the coach exchanges ideas and seeks feedback, chosen for that role, said Guardiola, because “I have the feeling he always has an eye on what is best for the team.
“That is difficult to find in players of this sort of ability, a real world-class player to be incredibly humble. Normally strikers just think about goals. I know he will score goals and have that impact. But the more he is involved in many things, so much the better.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
Stage 5 results
1 Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 3:48:53
2 Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team -
3 Adam Yates (GBR) Mitchelton-Scott -
4 David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:04
5 Ilnur Zakarin (RUS) CCC Team 0:00:07
General Classification:
1 Adam Yates (GBR) Mitchelton-Scott 20:35:04
2 Tadej Pogacar (SlO) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:01
3 Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team 0:01:33
4 David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:48
5 Rafał Majka (POL) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:11
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
Results
5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (Dirt) 1,000m, Winner: Hazeem Al Raed, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 85,000 (D) 1,000m, Winner: Ghazwan Al Khalediah, Hugo Lebouc, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,400m, Winner: Dinar Al Khalediah, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi.
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Faith And Fortune, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Only Smoke, Bernardo Pinheiro, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: AF Ramz, Saif Al Balushi, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: AF Mass, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
SERIES INFO
Schedule:
All matches at the Harare Sports Club
1st ODI, Wed Apr 10
2nd ODI, Fri Apr 12
3rd ODI, Sun Apr 14
4th ODI, Sun Apr 16
UAE squad
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Zimbabwe squad
Peter Moor (captain), Solomon Mire, Brian Chari, Regis Chakabva, Sean Williams, Timycen Maruma, Sikandar Raza, Donald Tiripano, Kyle Jarvis, Tendai Chatara, Chris Mpofu, Craig Ervine, Brandon Mavuta, Ainsley Ndlovu, Tony Munyonga, Elton Chigumbura
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Asia Cup 2018 final
Who: India v Bangladesh
When: Friday, 3.30pm, Dubai International Stadium
Watch: Live on OSN Cricket HD
About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
