Report: BVB Interested in David Raum and Sasa Kalajdzic

According to Sport1, Borussia Dortmund are honing in on Sasa Kalajdzic, the gargantuan striker from VfB Stuttgart, and David Raum, a 24-year-old left back from TSG Hoffenheim. While the club won’t make any moves in the next few weeks, due to the international break, they are expected to intensify their interest when players return.

Furthermore, to fund these transfers, BVB would need to sell some players. There have been a few rumored departures recently, including a potential sale of Nico Schulz to Lazio and Steffen Tigges to Cologne, but these would only bring in pennies compared to what it would take to buy Kalajdzic and Raum. It would take at least one or two major departures, including potentially Manuel Akanji and Raphael Guerreiro, to fund these purchases.

I wrote extensively about Sasa Kalajdzic here, but David Raum would be another solid acquisition. Like Raphael Guerreiro, David Raum is a great ball-moving defender who switches between full back and wing back. He racked up 11 assists in the Bundesliga this season, tied with Joshua Kimmich for 5th in the league, so he clearly has offensive upside. As with Guerreiro, I have concerns about Raum’s defensive play. If he does come to BVB, it would not surprise me to see manager Edin Terzic deploy a back three more often than last season, just to decrease the defensive burden on Raum and Thomas Meunier.