The Daily Bee (January 7th, 2018): Matchday and Bürki quits national team

• Roman Bürki puts national team career on “stand by”

Borussia Dortmund’s goalkeeper Roman Bürki has decided to not play for the Swiss national team for at least this year and focus on his career with the black and yellows. Bürkis has mostly been the number 2 behind Gladbach’s Yann Sommer a situation that surely played a role in his decision. Bürki issued the following statement on the matter:

Dear fans, you may have already read it: I’ve decided to switch to a kind of standby mode at least this year for my national team career.

Be sure that this step is anything but easy for me and that I really thought about it for a long time. Even writing these lines is not easy for me. It was and is simply the greatest honor for me to wear the jersey of my homeland. There is nothing about that, but nothing at all! I enjoyed and loved every second I was allowed to spend on the lawn with this team. And as I said: I do not rule out that in the future, additional missions are added, which would fill me with pride.

If need be, and I would be the best possible alternative for the coaching staff, I would of course live up to my responsibilities and always help wherever I can. I promised that to the association. And that’s what I stand for!

After six years and three tournaments for the Swiss national team, the decision to focus on my club, Borussia Dortmund, has matured for the past few weeks. I hope that young Swiss goalkeepers will take the opportunity to prove themselves in the training of Vladimir Petkovic and Patrick Foletti and gain important experience around the national team.

I ask all of you to understand my decision, which will be hard to understand for one or the other. I assure you that I will be the biggest fan of our selection during the time when I do not run for Switzerland!

• Balerdi to BVB now or in the summer?

The transfer of the young talented centerback Leonardo Balerdi to Borussia Dortmund seems to be almost done, however it is not yet clear when the 19-year-old will move to BVB. It is possible that Manuel Akanji’s situation will play a role in the decision, if Akanji is out for a prolonged period of time then BVB would probably like to add another defender in January.

• Morata-rumors start anew (Marca)

Even though BVB have struck gold with the transfer of Paco Alcacer it is possible that the club is still looking to add another striker and a familiar name has surfaced once again, Alvaro Morata. Every Dortmund fan is probably familiar with the Spaniard who has been linked to BVB countless times in the past few years. Now Marca claims Dortmund have made an inquiry about the Spaniard alongside Bayern Munich and FC Sevilla.

Since his 66€ million move to Chelsea in 2017 he has never looked comfortable in the Premier League team and it looks like they are ready to move on from him. Dortmund would certainly not pay anywhere close to the fee Chelsea paid for him but he might be a good option for the right price.

Daily Buzz: It’s matchday! Borussia Dortmund play their first game of the year today, a friendly against fellow Bundesliga team Fortuna Düsseldorf. What do you want to see from BVB today?

The game is at 16.00h CET and you will be able to watch it on BVB-TV, Youtube and Facebook (English commentary on Facebook).