Hans-Joachim Watzke talks about Lewandowski: shares his idea of a 100 million transfer

As the transfer market is firing up, Borussia Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke sat down for an interview with SportBild and discussed about his ideas of a quintessential transfer. Rather than viewing transfers as a mere deal between two clubs, Watzke tried to dissect the whole idea of a high budget transfer by analyzing a player both in sporting and economic terms:

Transfer fees in and of themselves no longer have any meaning. With transfers of these dimensions, it’s about the whole package. You have to break with the amount of the transfer fee and analyze the player both in sporting and economic terms. If today I invest 100 million in a player who’s older than 30, that 100 million is gone. I can’t sell such a player again later.

Watzke explained his little theory by citing the PSG forward, Kylian Mbappe as an example:

If, in contrast – and this is only a fictional example – I could have signed Kylian Mbappe for 100 million, I would have done so immediately. There would simply be a significant chance that I could profitably sell him sometime later.

He said that BVB has always been the strongest when it comes to developing it's stars and that he still prefers to forge star players himself:

These players in the top bracket no longer cost €50, but rather €100 million. We could manage even that, if we definitely wanted a player and were 1000% convinced about him. But I’ll be honest: I prefer it far more to forge such players myself. BVB was always strongest when it developed its stars.

Watzke was asked if Borussia will ever go triple-digit on any player in the transfer market, who would it be. The answer was, without any second thoughts, Robert Lewandowski:

Robert Lewandowski. But since a return by Robert is completely unrealistic, we don’t need to preoccupy ourselves with it any further.

Even after Lewandowski left Dortmund in 2014, the club still hasn’t lost faith in him. Ironically, it's something Bayern Munich may not have for the Polish captain:

For such a player, I’d be prepared to pay even €100 million. Robert knows the business, the league, even the club, and we would know that he’d work out right away. We would have this security with only very players in the world. But a transfer in Robert’s case cannot be completed, because he is not coming back to BVB and Bayern will not give him up.