Dortmund CEO Watzke fires back at Guardiola over agent fee remarks

Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has his hit back at Pep Guardiola following comments made by the Manchester City boss.

Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has taken a dig at Manchester City’s spending following comments made by Pep Guardiola regarding the amount the Bundesliga club have paid out in agent fees.

City face Dortmund in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night, with Guardiola having previously claimed that the Germans “pay a lot of money” to agents to help them identify young starlets.

In the build-up to the first leg of the last-eight tie that City won 2-1 at Eithad Stadium, Guardiola told reporters: “If one person knows in Manchester about Borussia Dortmund it is me. The culture of this club, the way they play and I will not find one single player from Borussia Dortmund without quality.

“They spend a lot of money on young players and pay a lot of money to agents to bring these players there because they have an incredible quality. Incredible. Maybe they didn’t find this season the consistency in the Bundesliga to win every week but for two [knockout] games they are able to do anything.”

Reacting to those comments, Watzke has pointed the finger at Guardiola’s spending with City in recent years, which has seen the Premier League leaders assemble a squad considered one of the strongest in Europe.

“In the last five years they [City] have spent nearly €1bn (£870m/$1.2bn) on new players,” the 61-year-old told BBC Sport. “In five years. Who has the possibility to make this? He has not to criticise other clubs.

Borussia Dortmund CEO, Hans-Joachim Watzke: "I know Pep Guardiola very well. He's one of the best managers in the world. But it's clear, if you are the coach of #ManCity and they have spent so much money on the team, in Abu Dhabi they want to win the #UCL." [via @BBCSport]
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) April 14, 2021

“[Dortmund’s strategy] is working fantastic but it is difficult to develop a team with it because after two or three years, these young players, if they perform very, very well, like Erling Haaland or Jadon Sancho, then the biggest clubs in Europe want to buy them. This is the only way for Borussia Dortmund.

“Dortmund is not a club where you must have big visions because you don’t have big money.

“If I had money like other clubs, who can spend €1bn in five or 10 years on the team, then you can have visions. What I want to have for the next years is that we get the status to be one of the best 10 or 12 clubs in Europe and normally to win some titles in Germany.”