Borussia Dormund has been rocked by a flurry of departures this summer, with Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan joining Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Manchester United respectively. The Bundesliga giants have now set their sights on former Chelsea striker Andre Schurrle.
Schurrle currently plies his trade for Wolfsburg after leaving Stamford Bridge in January 2015. The German striker scored 12 goals in all competitions in 2015-16 during a poor season for the Wolves. They managed to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, losing out to Real Madrid, but Wolfsburg will not even be competing in Europe in 2016-17 after ending the season in 8th place in the Bundesliga.
Wolfsburg sporting director Klaus Allofs has now claimed that Borussia Dortmund are interested in signing Schurrle.
“It’s clear that Dortmund’s interest in Schurrle is related to his past with Tuchel,” he said according to German publication WAZ.
“We want to hold on to Andre and qualify for the Champions League again with him. But we obviously have to look at the economical side of things as well…I cannot say anything about whether Dortmund have already made an offer,” he added.
Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel gave Schurrle his professional football debut and first contract in 2009, while they were working together for FSV Mainz. The striker was sold to Bayer Leverkusen the following summer.
Die Schwarzgelben are on the lookout for an attacking player after losing Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Manchester United. Schurrle is capable of playing as a winger or attacking midfielder and could slot in well alongside Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the BVB attack.
However the former Chelsea man is most adept in the role of secondary striker. While Mkhitaryan is a play-maker as well as direct attacking threat, Schurrle is more of a finisher and counter-attacking threat. The latter’s tally of 3 assists last season pales in comparison to the former’s 15. Although he may not be a like-for-like replacement, Schurrle is still developing as a player and could adapt his style according to the demands at the club.
Schurrle would be interested in a transfer to seemingly the only challenger to Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga throne. While the club is willing to let him go for the right price judging from Allofs’ comments, Wolfsburg will be looking to make a profit on the £22 million they paid Chelsea for the striker in 2015.
