Steffen Baumgart wants Borussia Dortmund to beat Bayern Munich to Bundesliga title this season

Earlier this week, kicker had asked all of the managers in the Bundesliga who they felt would be lifting the Meisterschale at the end of the season. Expectedly, most of the managers said that they felt Bayern Munich would be securing their tenth Bundesliga title in a row, but that wasn’t the collective consensus across the entire board. 15 of the managers, including Julian Nagelsmann said that Bayern would win it. New Borussia Dortmund manager Marco Rose and Bayer Leverkusen manager Gerardo Seoane abstained from answering the question (Tz).

The one answer that stuck out from the bunch was current FC Koln and former SC Paderborn manager Steffen Baumgart. When he was asked about who he thought would win the title this season, he replied, “Who will be the German champion? You won’t hear Bayern Munich there. My guess is Dortmund. It’s about time we got someone else.” Of course, Baumgart’s Koln side got the better of Nagelsmann’s Bayern last weekend in a preseason friendly, but it was a very young, inexperienced Bayern side since the majority of their players were still on their post-Euro 2020 holiday. Baumgart isn’t known as someone who will shy away from saying something off the cuff that goes against the grain, but what he said certainly speaks for other managers in the league that just didn’t vocalize their desire to see a new champion.

Realistically, it could very well be the season where we see Bayern dethroned as they’ve lost some key players in David Alaba, Jerome Boateng, and Javi Martinez, but Dortmund have also lost playmaker Jadon Sancho. Not to mention, there’s rumors circulating about Erling Haaland’s future as well, which is surely unsettling for Dortmund fans. It’s not impossible, but it will still require a Dortmund side that doesn’t have too many slip-ups under Marco Rose to be able to finally dethrone Bayern.

RB Leipzig have also done very good business during the transfer window and could pose a threat to Bayern this season. Nagelsmann’s old side have been smart with their transfer business and could be another exciting package this season under Nagelsmann’s replacement, Jesse Marsch.