EDITOR’S Note:

Eight-time Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund (BVB) stand out with its slogan “Echte Liebe,” or “true love” in English. The German club’s fast and free-flowing style of football has indeed won the hearts and minds of football fans in Europe, and now it’s looking to Asia.

The squad will arrive in town today to prepare for its first International Champions Cup (ICC) friendly with Manchester United tomorrow.

Shanghai Daily writer Ni Tao spoke to legendary BVB CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke in an email interview ahead of the game.

SD: What is the biggest challenge in managing the club as CEO?

Watzke: Everybody at Borussia Dortmund is aiming to have success, every day, in every game of each and every season. You always aim to win the last game, BVB is here no different than any other club in the world.

But at the same time everybody at Borussia Dortmund is on the same page in that we may not lose our focus on sustainability, both economically and in terms of our team.

Our goal is not to be successful only in the short term. We had this in Dortmund a decade ago, and we all remember very well where this way of thinking and managing led the club — to the brink of bankruptcy.

It had been a truly fundamental crisis for Borussia Dortmund, and for sure it has been hard work to turn this situation around to the point where we are today.

In the whole of Europe you won’t find another football club who became national champions and made it to the Champions League final without making one euro in debts. We even paid all our debts in the amount of 120 million euros (US$132 million).

SD: BVB’s recipe for success has been the envy of smaller clubs. Can this formula be emulated?

Watzke: It is not my job to give advice to other clubs. I only can talk about us and our way: that is not solely to buy ready-made stars, but to invest in talents we further develop into stars.

Take Robert Lewandowski for example, who cam from his native Poland to Borussia Dortmund, or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Mario Goetze was developed in our own youth academy.

For Shinji Kagawa we paid 300,000 euros in training compensation to his home team in Japan.

Right now we are again at this point. In Ousmane Dembélé, Raphael Guerreiro, Emre Mor and Mikel Merino we managed to find some players that became attractive to other — and bigger — clubs as well.

Only by that time we had already signed them to Borussia Dortmund. We fully accept that we have to be a bit more creative than others, and that is what we try to be.

SD: A frequent source of disappointment for BVB fans is that the club has lost key players during transfer windows. Would you consider taking a tougher stance against players keen on a move away from the club?

Watzke: It is hardly possible to stop players from taking their next steps. But as history proves, we already have done so whenever we feel (it) would otherwise hurt the success of our team.

This year, the situation had been different. We had received offers for players with only one more year on their contracts — offers we never had imagined we would receive them.

All in all it, seemed worthwhile for us to let these players go rather than losing them one year later for nothing.

And we have to accept there are about five or six clubs that are even bigger than Borussia Dortmund; and it’s where our players go to: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Manchester City. Not the worst clubs, if I may say so.

And who were we to cry? Take a look at all these clubs who lose players to us. If we were disappointed to lose one important player every year, how disappointed would all the other clubs have to be?

SD: How will BVB, a relative latecomer to this market, compete with such established players as Manchester United in trying to court Chinese fans?

A: Not only Borussia, we have to admit that for many years German football did not regard the Asia, and Chinese market in particular, as important as it is. For a long time, English Premier League clubs were the big players within the market.

We still have to catch up, but we are. Borussia Dortmund stands for a young, dynamic and passionate style of football. What plays a vital role in Asia is the Champions League. As a club you have to be part of it, and if possible you should be successful.

As Borussia is No. 8 in the UEFA — the continental federation — club ranking we get a fair share of attention. We are extremely happy with where we are right now.

It’s fantastic to be a part of the International Champions Cup (ICC), where we will play games against Manchester United in Shanghai and Manchester City in Shenzhen.

SD: Under your stewardship, Dortmund bounced back from the dark days when it was fighting off a looming bankruptcy and has since emerged as a force to be reckoned with in European football. This is a remarkable achievement. What’s next?

Watzke: As I mentioned before, this summer we once again mainly invested in talent which we hope may blossom sooner rather than later. At the same time, we’re ambitious in the short term as well.

We want to do a good job in the Bundesliga year after year, which means our primary goal is always to qualify for the Champions League.

Therefore we need to finish the season on one of the first three or four spots of the league table. Number one more than ever seems reserved for Bayern Munich, and as we are aware that especially at the beginning we might need some time to develop chemistry and success, we have to keep a close eye on the teams behind us, namely Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg and our local rivals from Gelsenkirchen (Ed: Schalke 04).

Once we fire on all cylinders, I see a bright future for our club with highly talented players, all on long-term contracts without release clauses.

SD: BVB recently partnered with the Hangzhou Greentown Football Club in youth academy programs. Are there further plans to expand the scale of the initiative to get more Chinese clubs on board?

Watzke: Time will tell. Right now we are excited to come to China and make a lasting impression there.

Then of course, we want to show our strengths, and one of those is our great experience in bringing on footballers.

We’ve learned that China as a country is investing a lot into youth development. It takes time, everyone has to accept that. You need to build up football from the very bottom, in schools and clubs.

Therefore you need to have coaches and teachers with expertise and a passion for the game. It all starts with attracting youngsters to football. It has to become a mass movement. In the beginning it is the coaches and teachers who will have to instill a passion and the joy of the game.

We offer to open our BVB philosophy and help developing footballers. If by doing so we can enter into collaborations with companies investing in Chinese football, we are happy to do so. It can be a win-win situation.

SD: Are there near-term plans to sign Chinese players?

Watzke: I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of signing a player from China one day. But if we were doing so, it can’t just be for marketing reasons. Doing that would insult Chinese football.

At the moment, to be honest, I hardly see a player who could provide the needed quality. Chinese football needs time to develop players. If we do sign a Chinese player, I want him to have a realistic chance of becoming a part of the top 15 players at the club. He has to have the chance of making the team for competitive matches.

SD: How do you see the flourishing of Chinese leagues, manifested by the number of world-class players who have joined local clubs for big money?

Watzke: Yes, you are right, there is a lot of money in play right now. Players sign for horrendous amounts of money. To where this will lead and how lasting this trend is, we will have to wait and see.