Mentality, identity, rebuild.

Sebastian Kehl returned to Borussia Dortmund after the club recognised in early 2018 that the squad was lacking the right mentality. "The time away from BVB was good for me. After gaining new experiences, learning new things, and making decisions without added pressure, I was ready to return to Borussia."

A stroke of luck, as it turned out, because the team were nearly crowned champions. "I don't deserve the credit," says Sebastian immediately. He's a team player through and through. Nevertheless, he still knows where he can lend his expertise to help fine-tune the squad. "Mentality was never my problem. Neither was identity. And thus I was able to use my own experience to reinforce the goals of the management and the coach within the squad. It helps if you know your way around and stand for important values. Self-confidence and humility should go hand-in-hand, especially in the case of young players."

BVB wanted a rebuild after the rocky 2017/2018 season. "We focussed on experience and from the very first match day things went much better than expected. We were cautious, maybe too cautious. Because if you have a lead of 9 points and can win the title, you don't want to finish second in the end."

"I was very disappointed after 'Gladbach. But we soon realised that we were right: the first year was just the beginning. Aki, Michael and Matthias are brilliant! We're devising solutions with the coach and the team. And everyone has something to learn, including me!"