True love: the Yellow Wall and Borussia Dortmund

A name from beer, a wall of yellow

The name Borussia came from a local brewery, whose name hung in the pub where the founders met. The club's name, in other words, came from beer. Its official slogan is Echte Liebe, true love.

Signal Iduna Park is the biggest football stadium in Germany. Its symbol is the south terrace, the Yellow Wall, filled in yellow by more than 20,000 fans. Dortmund play the Revierderby against local rivals Schalke 04, and Der Klassiker against Bayern.

1997: top of Europe for the first time

Ottmar Hitzfeld won two straight leagues in 1995 and 1996, then took Dortmund to the top of Europe. Beating holders Juventus 3–1 in the 1997 Champions League final gave the club its first European title.

Michael Zorc, who holds the club's appearance record, stayed for decades after retiring as sporting director.

Klopp's charge and tears at Wembley

Jürgen Klopp opened a new golden age with back-to-back titles in 2010–11 and 2011–12. In the 2012 DFB-Pokal final, Lewandowski's hat-trick beat Bayern 5–2 and completed the club's first Double. Lewandowski had come from Poland's Lech Poznań in 2010, while Hummels, a Bayern academy graduate, arrived on loan in 2008 and became a defensive icon.

The 2013 Champions League brought glory and heartbreak. In the quarter-final against Málaga, Reus and Santana scored in stoppage time to win 3–2 from the brink of elimination. In the first leg of the semi-final, Lewandowski scored all four in a 4–1 win over Real Madrid. But the day before that game, Götze's move to Bayern was announced. The final at Wembley was against Bayern, Götze missed it through injury, and Robben's late goal meant a 2–1 defeat.

A stage for young stars, and Wembley again

Dortmund is also where young players become world stars. Sancho came from Man City's academy in 2017, and Haaland scored for two and a half years before joining City in 2022. The pair each scored twice in the 2021 DFB-Pokal final, a 4–1 win over RB Leipzig. Bellingham arrived from Birmingham as a teenager and left for Real Madrid in 2023 as a world star.

Marco Reus, who came back after starting in Dortmund's youth system, wore 11 for 12 years and was the face of the club. In 2024, Dortmund beat PSG 1–0 home and away in the Champions League semi-final, with Hummels heading the winner in Paris to reach their first final in 11 years. Back at Wembley, they lost 2–0 to Real Madrid and finished runners-up again.

Korean fans may also remember Park Joo-ho, who was at the club from 2015 to 2018.