Borussia Dortmund Officially Sign Donyell Malen From PSV

Donyell Malen is officially a Borussia Dortmund player, despite a bit of negotiating between the club’s board and PSV Eindhoven. The Dutch International forward was given the green light to start training with Bundesliga side in Bad Ragaz today despite there still being some paperwork to tidy up. Regardless, the deal was finalized for a reported €30M euros:

After a day in which Die Schwarzgelben fans on twitter were begging BVB to announce Malen’s signing, the social media team made this nice display of Malen standing with all of the Dortmund faithful’s impatient tweets behind their new player. Our friends over at PSV also sent over a clip showcasing Malen’s finishing ability for the black and yellow brigade giving us quite a bit to be excited about. As John already explained in his piece the other day, Malen has been steadily improving which culminated in 24 goals (no penalties) and 8 assists this past season between the Eredivisie and the Europa League. While the Netherlands fell in the round of 16 at the European Championship, Malen played well, and registered 2 assists in 149 minutes of action.

While Malen is acting as Jadon Sancho’s de facto replacement, they are not the same type of player. The flying Dutchman played in a strike partnership for PSV the last couple of seasons, using his pace and finishing to bag lots of goals in PSV’s high powered attack. While he could play wide like Sancho did, new coach Marco Rose has said that he will play with two strikers often this season. Malen should be the perfect partner to team with star striker Erling Haaland up front given his explosiveness and vision, and will no doubt have Bundesliga defenses on tenterhooks. It will be interesting to see how Rose utilizes Malen, nevertheless this signing will give the German boss options which may prove crucial given his penchant for tactical flexibility.

Your Thoughts

Will Rose play Malen and Haaland as a strike partnership?