Harry Kane scored a hat-trick for Bayern Munich away to Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker last season. This time around, he trudged off injured. But not before being upstaged by compatriot Jamie Gittens, who scored himself after a sensational solo run.
The young English winger left Konrad Laimer chasing in vain, running half the length of the pitch before almost taking Manuel Neuer’s head off – and the Westfalenstadion roof with it – when he fired the ball high into the Bayern net for the game’s opening goal.
Speaking to Felix Nmecha after the game, he was wide-eyed about his team-mate’s performance. “Fantastic goal. We know the type of speed he has got and when he gets into those types of situations he has been doing it more regularly.” In other words, it was coming.
Gittens, 20, is enjoying a breakthrough season at Dortmund. It began with two goals against Eintracht Frankfurt, featured a goal against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu, and has now seen him score in each of his last three games. Something has changed in him.
His integration has taken time but with 14 starts already this season the impact substitute has now dropped the substitute part of that moniker. He is growing and growing, something Nmecha has witnessed up close since their days together at Manchester City.
“He obviously came from the youth [team]. Especially in the last year, with the way he has grown and developed, also just through more game time. He is getting more experience and starting to make the right decisions at the right time. It is paying off.”
Route to Dortmund
When it comes to honing young English talent, Dortmund know how to do that better than most clubs in the Premier League. But Gittens’ story is different to those of Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham who came before him before moving on for big money.
Bellingham arrived having had a season in the Championship with Birmingham City. Sancho ranked alongside Phil Foden as one of the jewels in the Manchester City academy. Gittens, signed at the age of just 16, did not come with quite the same guarantees.
A prospect at Reading, he had spent only two years at City, but was not close to the first team when Dortmund made their move. “We do not want to find 30 players like other teams in England do it. We want to find the one player who can reach our first team.”
Those are the words of Lars Ricken. “When we signed him, he was not on Sancho’s level but we said, we can develop him to the level of a great player. It was a good cooperation between our scouting department, professional department and youth department.”
Ricken, answering questions from Sky Sports in an office just over the road from the stadium where Gittens is now shining, is the club’s sporting director – and hero of their 1997 Champions League win in Munich. Naturally, he has followed the player’s progress closely.
“I can remember when he was playing with the youth team, we said we needed time until April and then he will be ready for the first team. It was under Marco Rose [in 2022] that he made his debut. Since then, great development, especially this season.”
His stamina has been improving. “I think even in the last season he never played 90 minutes,” adds Ricken. “Now, he is improving his playing time. To be honest, he is the player who makes the difference – scoring important goals and assisting a lot of goals.”
Jamie Gittens’ heatmap and shotmap for Borussia Dortmund this season
Dortmund’s difference-maker
That phrase – difference-maker – is the same one used by Dortmund’s managing director Carsten Cramer too. “He is very important right now. Even if we have some problems, he is able to make the difference through his individual quality,” he says.
“We convinced him to sign for Dortmund. We had good proof through the other ones who we signed – and not only the English ones. The younger ones do know that they will receive minutes on the pitch, that Dortmund is an excellent platform.
“He is a good example to others that Dortmund gives you the time to develop yourself, even if you have some bad luck with injuries. We are happy with how he is playing, how he is behaving. He is so humble, so down to earth. He is a perfect Dortmund guy.”
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Speaking in August, Jamie Gittens tells us all about his life at Borussia Dortmund
What do the legends say?
A perfect Dortmund guy. There is no big club in European football that takes such pride in styling itself as a little family operation. Ricken is far from the only former player on the management side, even the head coach Nuri Sahin wore Dortmund yellow.
Club legends are kept close. Speaking to Roman Weidenfeller, their World Cup-winning goalkeeper, he too speaks warmly of the young man now lighting up the team. “He grew up here. He has speed, he can shoot and he is clever. He works behind the defence.”
Weidenfeller also alludes to those injury problems that had delayed his progress. “It can be complicated to have him on the pitch.” There was a shoulder problem last year, an ankle ligament injury before that. “Hopefully, he is stronger now and more healthy.”
Paul Lambert, a Champions League winner alongside Ricken in 1997, is optimistic about that. He is speaking in the Borusseum – the museum within the stadium that celebrates those accomplishments of the past. “He is growing in stature,” Lambert explains.
“He has started to put the weight on.” He means it in a good way. “He looks a bigger lad than when I first saw him. He was only young at that time, on the bench and coming off the bench. He had talent, without a doubt. You could see it was ready to come out.”
And, Lambert insists, there is no better place for it to emerge. “If you can play in front of this [crowd] every week, not many will better this atmosphere. And he is performing, even in the Champions League. Hopefully, he has a massive career in front of him.”
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Watch Jamie Gittens’ goals for Borussia Dortmund in their win over Eintracht Frankfurt
What next for Gittens?
Of course, Dortmund’s model being what it is, the matter of Gittens’ long-term future is never going to be too far from the conversation. “Maybe it is your next question but it is not our aim to sell him because we want to be as successful as possible,” says Ricken.
Cramer argues much the same, stressing that Dortmund are in no rush. There is more to come from Gittens. “It is our ambition to keep him playing for us for as long as possible. It is not the aim to gain as much money as soon as possible. We want to keep him.”
As a strategy, that makes sense for now. Gittens is only just getting started on his journey, even if goals against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich suggest his progression is beginning to accelerate. There is work to do defensively. Consistency is needed too.
Against Bayern, he had the chance to double Dortmund’s advantage but for a loose touch. Gittens can still drift in and out of games, his languid style, inviting challenges, does not always work. But those difference-making moments are becoming more frequent.
So are the headlines – and with Thomas Tuchel taking over as England manager in January, the likelihood of Gittens’ achievements in the Bundesliga passing people by back home is decreasing. It would be no surprise to Nmecha if he is in the next squad.
“He is in amazing form,” says the midfielder. “He is definitely asking questions. I just hope the best for him. I hope that for the next camp he can get selected. I just wish him all the best because if he keeps going like this he has such a huge future ahead of him.”
Already Dortmund’s Klassiker hero, maybe Gittens will be overshadowing Kane in an England shirt as well, before too long.