- 10 hours ago
Why do Barcelona want Zorc as their new sporting director?
Cameron Smith
- Updated: 17 May 2021 21:34 BST
- 2 min read
Barcelona are in a mess right now; they sit ninth in the league, are reportedly in serious financial difficulty, and Lionel Messi appears to want out.
Their solution?
Hire Borussia Dortmund’s Michael Zorc as their new sporting director, according to Spanish journalist Oriol Domenech.
The Blaugrana terminated Eric Abidal’s contract as sporting director in August and hired Ramon Planes as his replacement after Ronald Koeman took over as head coach.
But with the election of a new club president imminet following Josep Maria Bartomeu’s resignation, the topic of sporting director has been widely discussed, and Zorc is said to be high on the agenda for several candidates.
If you look at the job he has done at Dortmund since his appointment in 2005, this will come as no surprise.
The ex-BVB midfielder has recently brought the likes of: Jadon Sancho (£7m), Erling Braut Haaland (£18m), Dan-Axel Zagadou (Free) and Ousmanne Dembele (£13.5m) – among plenty of others – for a fraction of their current market value.
Looking further back: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ilkay Gundogan, and Mats Hummels were signed for just £45.2m, but fetched an incredible combined £151m in transfer sales, while Robert Lewandowski, the goal-scoring hero of their 2011-12 title win, was signed from Lech Poznan for just £4.3m; a true testament to the work done by Zorc.
This smart business is something that seriously interests the free-spending Barcelona whose extortionately priced signings of Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann have left the club in a financial hole.
Whether Zorc ends up at Barcelona is up in the air, but it’s certainly a surprise that a European powerhouse hasn’t so far made a serious attempt to pry him away from Dortmund.
