Cole Campbell is a rising prospect in the Borussia Dortmund ranks but his long-term potential has led to growing interest for his services elsewhere.
Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart are interested in Campbell and are monitoring his situation at Borussia Dortmund, sources close to the player have confirmed to SBI. In addition, multiple clubs from the English Premier League and La Liga have also expressed interest in Campbell.
Campbell, 19, made his Dortmund debut in October 2024 and overall has featured in six matches this season. The young forward has also featured 11 times for Borussia Dortmund II, scoring two goals and adding one assist.
He is set to make his return to action this weekend after being sidelined since early-March. Campbell suffered a slight injury prior to Dortmund’s UEFA Champions League series with Lille in the Round of 16.
Campbell was originally expected to be part of the U.S. Under-20 men’s national team camp in Spain but his injury forced him out of action.
A former Iceland youth national team player, Campbell has featured for the USMNT U-19’s and U-20’s since. He was named to the USMNT’s preliminary roster for the CONCACAF Nations League Final Four.
Borussia Dortmund has disappointed in Bundesliga play this season, but remains in the Champions League competition. The Black and Yellow will face Barcelona in a two-legged quarterfinal series starting April 9.
Bayer Leverkusen are the reigning Bundesliga champions and are currently six points back of leaders Bayern Munich in this season’s title race.
Stuttgart sits 10th, two points in front of Borussia Dortmund.
you keep pretending it’s “just me.” first, he was on the provision roster for the Nations League, but injured. so we don’t know if he was ticketed U20 or senior or what, if healthy. and the fact he was on the list says poch himself sees him as in the neighborhood. second, the schalke coach. third, a simple google search would find Bundesliga league website articles describing him as Dortmund’s “huge potential” player, one of 5 teens to watch in their system, and comparing him to Pulisic, Reyna, and the forgotten Lennard Maloney.
but to me if you lot took 5 seconds and watched, say, a half of that schalke U19 game in the fall, you’d quickly see it. fast winger with good touch who can finish.
basic fallacy of comparing him to weah is you don’t have to be better than the starter to make the team. we have guys like musah, mckennie, zendejas, aaronson, cowell, and others getting PT as senior team wide subs. i think he’s better at his job than the whole list.
IV,
“at some point maybe acknowledge that everyone we have from dortmund can ball and maybe that’s different than norwich or vancouver.”
Not everyone.
Terrence Howard, Joe Gyau.
dude, they predate pulisic.
IV
Doesn’t matter. You wrote:
“at some point maybe acknowledge that everyone we have from dortmund can ball and maybe that’s different than norwich or vancouver.”
Nothing about AFTER PULISIC.
BVB have developed young talent before, during and after Pulisic.
They aren’t perfect. Joe Gyau had real potential but his career was ruined by injury. And had nothing to do with the fact that CP hadn’t gotten their yet.
We may soon be saying that Gio’s career was ruined by injury. HOw come the Pulisic being at Dortmund magic did not save him?
Being a young USMNT eligible player on Dortmund’s books is good but it does not guarantee shit. Cole is already 19 and is behimd where Pulisic was at the same age.
people can talk smack all they want. the results from copa and this last weekend are bad and consistently so. it is time for sacred cow to stop. most of this team has their job because circularly it’s been their job. or because they had 1 good friendly 5 months ago or something.
this needs to open up to fresh players and ideas.
i personally thought canada’s defense looked soft, but we weren’t getting the ball far enough upfield to test that much. and we could get behind panama but either blew it or put our foot on the brake. the rare flashes of “something” hint at the tactics being crap and the selection suboptimal. the best players were often off the bench hinting at wrong choices.
i personally am not sure luna is better than reyna but think we are so so so passive he looked vibrant by comparison. as reyna has on prior windows. “my god, someone actually taking people on and hitting setup passes! when his instructions are to stop, turn around, wait for the cavalry, and hit it back to the keeper!” to me if we’re gonna annoint people as sure things it should take more than 1 assist all weekend while we lose twice. now, he should play more. sure. but the hype train and meme ideas aren’t working.
maybe sit down 5 seconds and decide what we’re trying to accomplish before we start selecting.
at striker i thought there was a basic failure to diagnose that the remaining striker pool was not up to task and use a top player at 9 like reyna or puli. or even mckennie. i like agyemang and think he should be on a bench, but i don’t see him as ready to carry this, and sargent and white were simply not up to the task. and if those are your options just ignore the analytics department spouting nonsense and “do a donovan and dempsey.” i’d rather go down with serious players in serious positions than with the 5th or 7th best striker “because we pick from the cubbyholes.”
to me as a general matter we have not sorted back and keeper. and yet we’re stubborn about it. and the sole value of an old old hand like ream is does he fix it, which he doesn’t. and to some extent they need to decide what purpose we are picking people for. which means what are the tactics.
then as a basic matter of tactics we need to sit down and analyze what we are trying to do. to me this is stuck in between. not much offense. not tight enough defense. a bit soft all around. neither fish nor fowl.
IMO to stay on this 433 keepaway crap, we need more midfield technique. say, luna AND reyna. and just win eredivisie style games 3-2 going end to end. this actually fits with if some of you don’t believe there are any marking backs around. this is what the 2021 NL team actually was.
or
either the formation/approach change, or new personnel, and we aim for more leakproof defense. and perhaps a new way of getting downfield.
i haven’t really moved an inch on poch. i think it’s positive we showed we’ll spend decent money but he’s too similar to GB on default tactics. i think we’re more or less stuck for this cycle. klinsi had to evolve to accomplish things with our pool. the question will be does poch have others arrows in the quiver at all.
side point but if this is about who is healthy or not, that suggests the coach is less effective or adaptable. a coach with a good selection eye and tactical flexibility or strength shouldn’t fall off dramatically when people are out.
Well, it helps if we could see players in training, playing against one another, which is one of the best ways to judge Player A to Player B. We hope that an experienced coach like Pochettino can make proper judgments on that basis, as well as how well they do in competition with their club team. As for level of competition, I have always held that general managers/coaches in top leagues have to be excellent judges of talents and who should start or traded for, or they are out of a job. They certainly should be better placed to make those judgments than even the most rabid fans.
I’d love to see Campbell play. You can’t make any assessment of how he might look as a pro while he’s still playing against kids. The list of “brutally good” youth players that never quite made it is pretty long.
Hopefully, he finds a place where he gets time with someone’s first team next season.
dude is dortmund first team, has scored on france U20 and a brace on england U19, and if you read the article, is in demand by b.1 teams. can we please stop suggesting this is the next gideon zelalem? watch some footage. this is the next puli or reyna, and out of the same program.
if you want me to get blunt, this sort of inherent skepticism against our best age groupers is arguably in defense of a NT usual suspect set who themselves can’t get it done. so perhaps a little openness? people keep acting like i am saying shove the kid in the world cup champion first XI. we couldn’t beat panama in a semi.
It’s healthy skepticism, not inherent skepticism.
Joe Gyau, Josh Gatt, Sebastien Soto, Alex Mendes, Freddy Adu and, yes, Gideon Zelalem all lead me to want to see a young player perform against fully grown professionals before anointing him as the next “great one”.
Remember Freddy in the U20 World Cup, a hat trick against Poland and both assists in a win over Brazil. On one of the assists, he absolutely embarrassed the Brazilian defender in the process. Didn’t matter much when it came time to perform against grown men.
Campbell may in fact be the next Puli or Reyna (actually, for his sake, maybe he should aim higher than Reyna), but nobody (not even The Imperative Voice) can reliably predict that happening based on him being “brutally good” at U19.
Junior Flores never quite panned out with Dortmund or USNT either. He also spent time at Bradenton which I’ve heard tell was the key to all US success.
IV,
“this sort of inherent skepticism against our best age groupers is arguably in defense of a NT usual suspect set who themselves can’t get it done.”
Tell us why would any of us do that?
What exactly is to be gained by defending the “NT usual suspect set.”?
Cole is a winger? If he comes in and forces say, Zendejas and Weah off of the USMNT and out of a job, that’s too bad for them but why should any of us care? Presumably he would have to be real hot shit to do that and therefore make the USMNT that much better. So tells us why we should defend the status quo IV?
None of us had anything to do with building the status quo so why should any of us get upset because it is changing presumably for the better?
Pochettino’s staff have even less reason to hold down talent than SBI fans do. What I know about managers and their staffs is, if you show them you can help them win, then they will move heaven and earth to get you on the field. Why the fuck wouldn’t they?
“people keep acting like i am saying shove the kid in the world cup champion first XI.”
people act like you make no sense because you often don’t.
Interesting. Any way to get into a clubs first team should be a priority for him in the summer. A good year if first team soccer may boost his WC hopes. And quite frankly the US needs more quality wing options heading into the WC next year. Weah can’t be the only option.
Renowned Schalke U19 manager Norbert Elgert on Cole Campbell:
“Cole Campbell is a Bundesliga player. He would be a regular in our first team. He is brutally good.”
Comes after Campbell scored & assisted twice with the Borussia Dortmund U19s vs Schalke U19 on Saturday
Have you folks considered that maybe how our players stack up at Dortmund is a special case and not indicative of their quality relative to some guy playing for a midtable Championship team?
It’s odd, we seem to intensely care what teams they play for but not factor that data into our analyses of how they compare to each other. Hmm maybe don’t rate down Reyna Richards Weah because they are only coming up through Dortmund Bayern PSG??
I think we have regressed. We are like passive soccer snobs who can’t tell good players from bad ones without checking their stats. Sorry based on what I just saw I want Luna and Reyna and not McKennie in the middle. Or Agyemang and Ferreira at striker and not Sargent. Or someone besides most of our backline and keeping.
Schalke’s first team plays in the 2. Bundesliga….so saying he would be in their first team, well, says more about Schalke than anything.
MoO: and the article above is first division teams who want the player. so what about your nitpick?
i swear you people diss what you’re seeing and then are scared out of your wits to change it any just the same.
and my grander point was also can we just start evaluating players on their qualities and end this “club form” or “does he have enough first team minutes” crap? my experience it seems to be like a precision GPS guided missile for the sort of dortmund bayern PSG type player we should actually want. but who may have to fight for playing time at a top club.
at some point maybe acknowledge that everyone we have from dortmund can ball and maybe that’s different than norwich or vancouver.
do you think england sits there and benches prospects because they are on liverpool or city but not as much playing time as they’d hope? that italy is like you’re good and on napoli or inter but you’re bench based on playing time?
to answer my question, the way a well functioning NT would handle this, is reyna gets to start, and when healthy campbell makes the team, and they get run out in the shirt. and then we decide based on shirt play if reyna gets to maintain status. he rises or falls on US play. he doesn’t have to drag around “dortmund” any more than dempsey had to defend “spurs” or jozy had to apologize for “valencia” or “sunderland.” as long as he does it in the shirt.
as i said on the other thread, it would also have the side benefit of getting the guys with PT issues some game play and match fitness. and maybe the tape from that game impresses someone and their club situation changes, either they play at their current slot, or they get transferred based on they play an impressive 45-60′ for the US and maybe got in on something.
i dunno, we are running like some bizarre semi-snob thing where we ignore that some players have a different level competition to beat out than others. if, say, reyna came home to NYC and blew the league up, did “he” change??
like odd halfway-snobs. if we’re gonna throw around numbers maybe acknowledge sargent has never had more than 5 goals in a season in a first division. or that coming off the bench for dortmund might be bad-a__ while an ok starter for vancouver barely can trap a ball or complete a pass under A team international levels of pressure. it’s not the same. it’s not the same.
“ to answer my question, the way a well functioning NT would handle this, is reyna gets to start, and when healthy campbell makes the team, and they get run out in the shirt.”
Is this the most IV post ever, “to answer my question”?
IV,
” my grander point was also can we just start evaluating players on their qualities and end this “club form” or “does he have enough first team minutes” crap?”
You can evaluate any player however you want. But, if your concern is Campbell, and it isn’t really, you are just trying to show how much smart you are than the average bear, then Campbell is going to be evaluated by his club form because right now that is all they have, how he plays for his various clubs, like Elgert’s Schalke.
“based on what I just saw I want Luna and Reyna and not McKennie in the middle. Or Agyemang and Ferreira at striker and not Sargent. Or someone besides most of our backline and keeping.”
What happens if in the next game, those exact people suck?
V: dude, you don’t get it. in a US jersey gio reyna has 8G 5A including some big game contributions. reyna contributes in slightly over 1/3 his games. ferreira has 15G 4A in US caps. like near a goal contribution a game. at some point can we quit pretending they are somehow “parched?” can’t be trusted more than white or mcglynn?
likewise, 2G on england youth and 1G on france youth is not your ordinary kid.
y’all follow around club form like children. how many times do we have to reprove club stats don’t necessarily translate? how many shots does sargent get? you realize he’s hogging trialist time for people who might perhaps score in a game above cuba? you’re as stubborn as you think i am and worse for the guys we can tell aren’t quite working. this unit lost a lot lately.
none of these guys (ferreira, reyna, campbell) should have problems making the senior side and playing. one guy is a leading b.1 prospect by any nation, and the other 2 have only repeatedly got it done in the shirt.
the jacked up game on here is after this game you will say, “wait and see when they play.” then when rosters come out next time, you will defend the usual roster nonsense, because “club form.” and so we don’t actually “see them play.” it’s rhetoric posing as analysis. if it was analysis you’d genuinely demand their inclusion at some point.
this team is still basically stuck at 2020-22 and wants to bask in the reputational rays of who plays where, or lower division stats, instead of create a roster competition where these things are decided on the field.
the field product is not getting it done. right now we are the worst of the 3 hosts. my guess is the group round of the new 48 team tourney will be softer and make the coach look better. but in general this is mediocre and safe and if we want to be the same level as last time or better, he needs to actually take some tactical and personnel risks. some of that will involve turning some roster sacred cows into bench players or outright hamburger.
get over it.
IV: your lumping 3 completely different situations together.
Reyna: I’ll start there because we mostly agree. However, we also can’t completely over look he’s gone 90 minutes one time in the last 3 years, club or country. That sounds to me like there are still fitness/health concerns. I can’t believe he didn’t get more minutes this camp. I’d start him every time, he’s that much better than his replacements.
Campbell: I said bring him during Varas’s camp because it was pointless anyway. Do I think he’s good enough today to take minutes off Weah no, but would have taken Weah at forward and Cole wide over White. He’s not a leading prospect in the Bundesliga. There’s plenty of 18,19, 20 playing regular minutes in the Bundesliga. Duranville is on the same team and plays more than Cole.
Ferreira: 15g 4a,
Trinidad 5g 3a (2g 3a in Feb ‘21 against guys that hadn’t played in a year due to COVID)
Grenada 4g
St. Kitts 3g
That’s 75% of his production against minnows. Then it’s 2g against Panama and one against Mexico’s domestic based team and an assist against ES. I like Ferreira, I watched a lot of FCD because of him, but we can’t compare his production to Gio and say it’s the same.
IV,
“V: dude, you don’t get it. in a US jersey gio reyna has 8G 5A including some big game contributions. reyna contributes in slightly over 1/3 his games. ferreira has 15G 4A in US caps. like near a goal contribution a game. at some point can we quit pretending they are somehow “parched?” can’t be trusted more than white or mcglynn?”
You should run for office; you love to deflect and throw up a bunch of shit to see what sticks on the wall. We were talking about Campbell not Gio, Ferreira or Captain Jack.
Campbell has no USMNT record so by your logic you can’t trust him. But facts and logic never interested you much. What is your definition of club form? Because club form is all we have to evaluate Campbell.
“none of these guys (ferreira, reyna, campbell) should have problems making the senior side and playing. one guy is a leading b.1 prospect by any nation, and the other 2 have only repeatedly got it done in the shirt.”
Your logic for why the USMNT should value a player? It’s not based on merit or a player earning a shot by producing at his club.
The logic is “ Because IV said so ” followed by a bunch of illogical, made up rationalizations. which is fits in completely with how
things are in America today.
We know what Ferreira does in a USMNT shirt. He has 23 caps and 15 goals mostly against the likes of Grenada and disappears when given a shot at a big boy team in a real game. Jesus may one day earn another chance but he’s at the back of a line with guys like CP and Luna ahead of him. And if he wants to get in the front of that line again, the only way that happens is if he has great “club form” by tearing it up with the Sounders. Ain’t that ironic? If he is scoreless in Seattle, no manager is going to say whatever happened to that guy who dropped five on that tough nut Grenada? We need scoring, let’s call him up.
Calling Cole a leading b.1 prospect by any nation is stretching things a bit. He’s promising but there are a lot of promising 19 year olds in the BL; some of them actually play for their first teams. Rumors about big clubs being interested in Campbell are just that : rumors. The kind of shit agents spread out there to drum up hype and interest. Until someone puts some money down it’s mostly smoke, mirrors and bullshit. The irony is Cole will get his big break with the USMNT when he starts to display good club form with some club. Ain’t that ironic.
“none of these guys (ferreira, reyna, campbell) should have problems making the senior side”
Says who?
There are more than a few people on SBI who still want diva shitbag Gio to eat shit because of his parents. But Gio can’t shut them up from the trainer’s table. Hard to make the senior side when you can’t stay healthy. With Gio, a neutral observer can see that his biggest problem comes from ill-timed injuries and bad luck in terms of being at a club that keeps finding and bringing in eager young, inexpensive talent who play well at his position. Gio is valuable to the USMNT even if only as a part time player but lately even calling him a part time player is stretching it. His fate is still firmly in his hands, no one else.
Pochettino made it clear he wanted to actually meet Gio in real time , see him in training,etc.. I think he wanted to sub in Gio and Luna as a tandem but Luna wound up with more minutes than Gio. Part of that is just because that’s how the game played out but the other thing is I believe Pochettino wasn’t too worried about seeing Gio in a game; he knows what Gio can do when the bullets are real and Gio is fit and sharp. Gio is not fit and sharp right now. He will go back to whatever club he finally winds up with and there he will attempt a comeback to full fitness. Which means, Gio’s club form will really matter.
De nuevo, otra vez, ain’t that ironic. Fucking club form.
Luna on the other hand, Pochettino wanted to see as much of him in a competitive game as possible. Luna has a lot more to prove than Gio does. and he’s making progress so let him loose.
“y’all follow around club form like children. how many times do we have to reprove club stats don’t necessarily translate? “
Neither do national team stats.
Just because you scored a goal in the 2014 World Cup for the USMNT, it doesn’t mean you can still contribute to the USMNT in 2025 as you claim.
News flash,. your club team is different from your national team. So any time you switch teams there is a risk of needing a few games, which you do not have, to adapt.
By the same token if you have a couple of months between games for any team, like the USMNT for example, there is a chance that if you had a good game the last time out, you might suck in the next game. Your contention that there is a serious difference between club form and national team form is most fantasy. like Santa Claus. Pleasant for you but the reality is he treated Rudolph abusively and only accepted him under duress.
That’s why “club form” matters. It gives the best idea of where a player is right now. It doesn’t mean it’s the only criteria but it helps.
“as last time or better, he needs to actually take some tactical and personnel risks. some of that will involve turning some roster sacred cows into bench players or outright hamburger.”
Oh please. You’ve been saying this shit since day one but when anyone asks who the replacement personnel will be you got nothing.
It’s easy to run these guys down when they fuck up; you’re the king of I told you so. But other than Duane Holmes or Julian Green you don’t have and can’t name credible replacements for the sacred cows. Because in many cases, there are no credible alternatives. You view the USMNT through your select team lens.
But the USMNT ain’t a select team. So you’ll never be happy with it.
Pochettino is just going to have to make them better cows.
IV,
“at some point maybe acknowledge that everyone we have from dortmund can ball and maybe that’s different than norwich or vancouver.”
Not everyone.
Terrence Howard, Joe Gyau.