For SC Freiburg, this Sunday’s match towards Borussia Dortmund is a real trauma sport. Of their final seven encounters with the Black and Yellows, Freiburg suffered a whopping seven defeats—with a devastating purpose distinction of 6:28. No different workforce beats the Breisgauers so usually and so completely!
The hope that this horror file will lastly come to an finish this weekend rests primarily on one identify. And twelve months in the past, hardly anybody had heard of this identify: Johan Manzambi.
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The 20-year-old is not only a pleasant bonus in Freiburg’s attacking play this season. He’s, moderately, the participant who makes the distinction. With six scorer factors within the Bundesliga (three targets, three assists), he’s Julian Schuster’s most harmful man; throughout all competitions, he has been concerned in 9 targets in 20 aggressive matches.
A really meteoric rise
These are, with out query, top-class numbers. However it turns into much more spectacular if you take a look at his meteoric growth. Only a yr in the past, with a market worth of €750,000, he was taking part in within the Regionalliga Südwest. All through your entire 2024/25 Bundesliga season, he collected a meager 333 minutes.
Just a few months later, in accordance with transfermarkt.de, he’s value €15 million, is among the many fastest-rising gamers in worth throughout Europe, and is taken into account—alongside hyped names like Lennart Karl or Stated El Mala—as maybe the most well liked prospect amongst Bundesliga youth.
📸 Sebastian Widmann – 2025 Getty Photographs
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Since Manzambi moved from Swiss membership FC Servette to Freiburg’s U19s in January 2023, he has skipped each stage at lightning velocity. From the second workforce, he made it as much as the Bundesliga, celebrating his debut in September 2024.
A mixture of dynamism, creativity, ball management, and unbelievable versatility—from central midfield to second striker, he can mainly play anyplace—at present makes Manzambi one of the crucial thrilling gamers in Germany.
No surprise, then, that golf equipment like Bayer Leverkusen and SSC Napoli have lengthy since taken discover of him, in accordance with ‘Bild’. Equally attention-grabbing: Borussia Dortmund reportedly made preliminary inquiries this summer time, as revealed by the portal ‘Absolut Fußball’.
The right BVB switch?
That it was exactly the highest membership from the Ruhr space that reached out is hardly shocking. As a result of Manzambi is precisely the kind of participant who, for a few years, symbolized BVB.
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He’s younger, extremely proficient, filled with potential, energetic, and possesses a possible resale worth that may have made each Dortmund scout’s foot twitch nervously prior to now.
The event of uncooked diamonds like Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, or Jude Bellingham was for nearly a decade the clear identification of BVB. The Black and Yellow motto was: We discover skills, develop them, and make a golden revenue with them.
However this path has noticeably modified within the final two to 3 years. Younger gamers with nice potential have develop into uncommon within the squad. Karim Adeyemi or Felix Nmecha may very well be such gamers, however are nonetheless battling inconsistency.
And whereas the membership used to develop younger gamers en masse, the door for that appears to be closing in the mean time. Jamie Gittens grew to become a system casualty final season and was ultimately offered in the summertime. Now Julien Duranville is experiencing one thing related. Niko Kovač just lately said succinctly: “The others are higher.” Even when that could be true, it says loads concerning the present priorities in Westphalia.
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As a result of as a substitute of counting on younger prospects, BVB is at present constructing unusually closely on skilled gamers. Gamers like Gregor Kobel (28), Waldemar Anton (29), Nico Schlotterbeck (26), Marcel Sabitzer (31), Julian Brandt (29), and Serhou Guirassy (29) type the spine of the workforce.
They’re all prime gamers, however not the form of skills that convey again the previous Dortmund feeling. No surprise many followers lengthy for these thrilling, unpredictable, electrifying kids who put their stamp on the sport week after week.
The massive stage is asking!
After which there’s Manzambi, who embodies precisely that spirit. A participant who boldly calls for the ball, who sees areas others can’t even think about, and who can resolve video games single-handedly even at a younger age. Somebody who would have match BVB’s attacking midfield completely—particularly since Dortmund’s attacking play can typically appear a bit one-dimensional. In brief: a traditional “old-school BVB switch.”
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Now, on Sunday, Manzambi can present Dortmund reside what they’ve missed out on and the way precious it may be to maintain investing in youth. Freiburg is counting on him, giving him duty, letting him develop.
And who is aware of? Perhaps a robust efficiency will spark renewed curiosity. Perhaps Borussia will understand that gamers like Manzambi are usually not solely good for Freiburg, but in addition for a prime membership like themselves—a membership that’s at present looking out a bit for its clear identification.
This text was translated into English by Synthetic Intelligence.
📸 Daniela Porcelli – 2025 Getty Photographs