Rose discusses Rothe's dream debut: "Should serve as an incentive for more young players."
Three BVB Junior players made their Bundesliga debut for the senior team in Saturday's 6-1 thumping of Wolfsburg.
While it was simply a late formality for Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Lion Semic, 17-year-old Tom Rothe got a chance to live the literal dream in front of nearly 80,000 live spectators at Signal Iduna.
Head-coach Marco Rose and Rothe both shared their thoughts afterwards.
While it was simply a late formality for Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Lion Semic, 17-year-old Tom Rothe got a chance to live the literal dream in front of nearly 80,000 live spectators at Signal Iduna.
Head-coach Marco Rose and Rothe both shared their thoughts afterwards.
| Marco Rose. | Photo: Borussia Dortmund/OneFootball |
Captain Marco Reus reached a new assist milestone. Lead-striker Erling Haaland broke out of his goal-scoring drought in style. Defender Manuel Akanji scored his first goal of the season. All the relevant actors got in on the action during the shellacking.
And yet, what of the player who opened the floodgates by scoring the opening goal? Prior to today, 17-year-old Tom Rothe would not have been considered a "relevant actor" in any sense of the word. That's obviously changed now.
Thrust into the starting left-wing back role due to the unavailability of Raphaël Guerreiro, Thorgan Hazard, and Nico Schulz, Rothe rose high to win an aerial duel and head home a Julian Brandt cross for the 1-0 lead in the 24th. Dortmund scored three more in the four minutes that followed.
"To talk about individual players doesn't make sense," head-coach Marco Rose noted during his post-match presser, "Except for Tom Rothe and he doesn't want that."
Rose found himself talking about the youngster, who arrived from FC St. Pauli last summer, anyway.
"I think he did an excellent job," Rose said after a reporter posed him a blatant rhetorical question, "He's been with us for awhile. We know his qualities. He was with us in training camp and made an impression. It was simply time to throw the boy in."
"He was present in the game from the beginning," Rose continued, "He didn't let himself get rattled. With the goal he got even more confidence. He played a very composed game for someone his age."
Rothe himself seemed a bit flustered in his post-match interview, not quite capable of grasping what he had just accomplished.
"When you're actually playing here yourself, it's really amazing," the teenager gushed, "goosebumps. Indescribable."
Rose also answered questions about the two other youngsters he opted to introduce just prior to the full-time whistle. While Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Lion Semic counted as little other than time-killing subs, Rose hinted that he was prepared to utilize more academy players in the coming weeks.
"This should hopefully serve as an incentive for more," the coach said, "It's also very important to us here to keep building players from our junior team into the first team."