BREAKING: Dortmund announce the signing of Maximilian Philipp from Freiburg

Dortmund only just appointed Peter Bosz as manager, but that hasn’t stopped them from taking another early dip into the transfer market. Today the club officially announced the signing of Maximilian Philipp from SC Freiburg, he has signed a 5-year contract.

The fee for the 23-year-old winger was reported to be around €15 million. Philipp missed training with the Germany U21s on Monday so that he could travel to Dortmund to sign his contract and take a medical.

Philipp was born in Berlin and came through Hertha Berlin’s youth system. He signed for Freiburg from FC Energie Cottbus in 2013.

This season was Philipp’s breakout year at the senior level. He managed 9 goals and 2 assists in his 25 Bundesliga appearances. The German international was a key part of Freiburg earning 7th place, and a spot in the Europa League, in just their first year back in the top division.

Philipp can play as a right winger and a left winger, and is also comfortable playing as a second-striker. He’s 6 feet tall and has decent pace, but by no means is he the replacement for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Instead Philipp is reportedly a replacement for the injured Marco Reus, and thus will presumably be played out wide most of the time. Peter Bosz will find it quite handy to have such a versatile player at his disposal.

Philipp had been linked to other big clubs around Europe, including to Tottenham and Liverpool. But on paper Dortmund have done very well to secure his services at a solid price.

When you employ attackers like Mario Gotze, Marco Reus, and Andre Schurrle, you need depth behind them in case of injury. Philipp is so versatile, that he won’t be impeding on any one player’s playing time. Instead, he’ll be a nice compliment to players like Ousmane Dembele and Christian Pulisic.

And he surely won’t be Dortmund’s last signing of the window.