DORTMUND, Germany -- I looked on these new prodigies with what I can only call anticipatory nostalgi

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DORTMUND, Germany -- I looked on these new prodigies with what I can only call anticipatory nostalgia, as I prepared to say goodbye to them even in the act of saying hello. They did look dashing. When the celebrated baseball writer Roger Angell penned those words in the 1970s, he was talking about the San Francisco Giants and their propensity for developing the best young prospects in baseball and then trading them away to prosper elsewhere. Theres no evidence that Angell was much of a soccer fan, but he inadvertently came up with just about the best way of describing the 2020s version of Borussia Dortmund. After overpaying for veterans in the name of European contention in the early-2000s, BVB found itself on the verge of bankruptcy. They avoided administration by ditching salary, selling the naming rights to their storied home stadium and, at one point, taking a loan from Bayern Munich. They finished between sixth and 13th in the Bundesliga every year from 2004-09, but new manager Jurgen Klopp, hired in 2009, not only oversaw a rise back to the top of the table, but did it with a ridiculously young squad. They won the league in 2010-11 with an 18-year-old Mario Gotze, an ultra-young back line (Mats Hummels, Neven Subotic and Marcel Schmelzer were all 21 or 22), 21-year-old defensive midfielders Sven Bender and Nuri Sahin and 21-year-old attacker Shinji Kagawa. They gave primary attacking duties to 22-year-old Robert Lewandowski in 2011-12 and did it all over again. The template was set: BVB would make itself both financially secure and successful by becoming what amounted to be the best developmental club in the world. They would play attractive soccer, transfer their young superstars for huge fees, add the next round of young talent with the proceeds and keep right on winning.

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