Dortmund's New Stars Shine Despite Injury Concern
Niko Kovac walked off the Signal Iduna Park pitch with three points, two debutants lighting up the night – and one enormous worry.
“These are two lads who can and will give us a different dimension here, and they showed that today,” the Borussia Dortmund coach told Sky after the 2-0 win over Hamburger SV. He was talking about Giannis Konstantelias and Konstantinos Karetsas, the new Greek double act who turned Dortmund’s Bundesliga opener into a show.
Not a circus act. Not tricks for the cameras. Football with a purpose – and with a punch.
A New Dimension in Black and Yellow
Kovac had hinted at it before a ball was kicked. The squad, he said, now had players who could deliver the spectacular, the kind of daring on the ball many around Dortmund have been craving. On Saturday night, Konstantelias and Karetsas delivered exactly that.
Both arrived from smaller European leagues. Both have already changed the geometry of Dortmund’s attack.
They can do most of what Julian Brandt, now at Ajax Amsterdam, used to bring between the lines. But they also add something extra: they explode from a standing start. Where Brandt often needed the game to flow around him, Konstantelias and Karetsas can create the flow themselves. They receive in tight spaces, turn, and suddenly the whole match looks different.
Against HSV, that difference was obvious from the opening whistle.
Konstantelias Takes Centre Stage
For 45 minutes, Dortmund’s new No. 10-style presence ran the show. Konstantelias, already lively in the Super Cup defeat to Bayern Munich, took that performance and cranked it up a level.
His close control at full speed stood out. So did his agility, the way he glided past pressure and never seemed rushed. But he also brought edge. Around the half-hour mark he snapped into a duel in midfield, won the ball, and Signal Iduna Park roared. It was the kind of moment that instantly bonds a new signing with the Yellow Wall.
Then came his first big payoff.
Shortly before the break, Konstantelias made it 2-0, capping a dominant first half and marking his Bundesliga debut with a goal. There was a touch of luck – the shot deflected off a Hamburg defender – but the idea behind it was pure class. The Greece international shaped as if to go across goal, then hit a no-look effort towards the near corner. The deflection only added to the chaos he had already created.
“First half top, it was perfect. We implemented everything we wanted to implement,” defensive leader Waldemar Anton told Sky, purring over Dortmund’s display before the interval.
After barely 100 minutes in a black-and-yellow shirt, Konstantelias already looked like a new cult favourite in the making. The imagination ran wild: what would he look like after a few weeks, a few months, fully embedded?
Then the mood turned.
A Night Turns Sour
Just after narrowly missing what would have been his second goal, Konstantelias went into a challenge and his knee seemed to give way awkwardly. He sank to the turf. The stadium fell quiet.
He tried to continue but it was no use. In the 54th minute he came off, his face telling its own story: he feared something serious.
“Of course, we should be a little bit careful today about what we communicate. But we are certainly concerned about a more serious injury,” sporting director Ole Book admitted on Sky. Asked directly about the possibility of a cruciate ligament tear, he didn’t dodge it: “That concern is there.”
Kovac’s tone after the game was just as grim. “We will have the examination on Sunday. But at least it doesn’t sound good from what the doctor told me,” the coach said.
If Sunday’s scans confirm the worst and Konstantelias is ruled out for months, Dortmund will have lost far more than just a promising new signing. They will have lost the player who, in the space of a game and a half, had given their attack a different life.
BVB Lose Their Spark
The contrast between the halves told its own story. With Konstantelias on the pitch, Dortmund were slick, sharp and relentless. Without him, the machine lost some of its rhythm.
HSV improved after the break, no doubt, but Dortmund also lost a huge chunk of their mobility and creativity when their new playmaker went off. The visitors suddenly found it easier to breathe.
“When Dortmund play from right to left, play into the spaces in between, then first of all you do a lot of chasing and don’t really manage to get into the press. That was our problem,” HSV captain Nicolai Remberg explained on Sky, summing up the torment of that first half.
At the heart of that torment: Konstantelias and Karetsas.
The two Greeks constantly rotated, drifting into pockets between the lines, always available, always on the half-turn. Their first touch was clean, their decisions quick, their passing precise. They kept Dortmund’s tempo high and Hamburg permanently on the back foot.
“Brutal,” was Anton’s verdict on their performance. “The mobility they have, how dangerous they are, that is a great quality at that age and we need that for the future as well. I am glad we have them with us.”
Which is why the prospect of Karetsas now losing his ideal partner for a long spell feels so deflating – not only for Dortmund, but for the league as a whole.
The Big Question: How Do You Replace Him?
Book didn’t hide how much the injury hit him. “I felt incredibly sorry for the lad. He has had a great presence here from day one, also in the dressing room. We all already like him very much,” he said. “When you then play such a good first half and have to be substituted and something more serious is feared, it is just unbelievably annoying.”
On Saturday, Kovac turned to Marcel Sabitzer, the more defensively minded option. The Austrian did his job, but he doesn’t bring Konstantelias’ chaos between the lines.
On paper, Samuele Inacio is the closest like-for-like in the squad. The 18-year-old has the profile to operate in those spaces, to take the ball on the turn and attack defenders. But his cameo against HSV ended almost as soon as it began, with a lightning red card. Expecting him to step straight into Konstantelias’ role at this level would be a huge ask.
Maximilian Beier is the more seasoned alternative, yet using him centrally or as a roaming playmaker would force Kovac to abandon his plan of deploying the Germany international on the flank. That would solve one problem and create another, leaving a gap out wide.
All of this is complicated by the calendar. The summer transfer window closes on Tuesday, 1 September, at 8 p.m. Dortmund have only a few days to decide how drastic their response needs to be.
“Depending on how serious the injury actually is, we will align our next steps accordingly. But one thing is certain: over the next three days, we are not planning anything,” sporting managing director Lars Ricken said. His words sounded cautious. His expression suggested the club may yet have to move quickly.
Sancho Back in the Frame?
One obvious name is already circling again.
Said El Mala, Dortmund’s preferred option before the Konstantelias deal, has signed a new contract with 1. FC Köln and is off the table. That reopens the door for a familiar face: Jadon Sancho.
The Englishman fits the profile. Like Konstantelias and Karetsas, he can inject dynamism from a standing start, beat players in tight spaces and unlock deep-lying defences. Speculation about a third spell at BVB had cooled after the Greeks arrived. It might heat up again very quickly.
Sancho’s best football came in Dortmund colours. Since leaving Manchester United as a free agent, he has yet to find a new club and would cost no transfer fee. That keeps the financial risk low, even if he would have to accept a significant pay cut to return.
The sporting risk is another matter. Can he rediscover the form that once made him one of Europe’s most feared young attackers? His recent loans at Chelsea and Aston Villa were largely disappointing. The question is whether Dortmund believe they can revive him one more time.
For now, the story is not about who might come in. It is about a 26-million-euro signing who, in just over 100 minutes, showed how much he could elevate this team – and then left the pitch fearing the worst.
If the scans confirm those fears, Dortmund’s opening-day win will be remembered less for the scoreline and more for the moment their new star grabbed his knee and stared at the grass.
The club wanted a new dimension in attack. They found it. Now they may have to rebuild it before the season has even begun in earnest.
