Borussia Dortmund Were Right to Sell Jakub Blaszczykowski, but Will Miss Him

On Monday, Borussia Dortmund officially announced the fourth departure of this summer’s transfer window, with winger Jakub Blaszczykowski leaving the club for VfL Wolfsburg.

VfL have secured the services of Jakub Blaszczykowski from @BVB. Kuba has signed a deal with VfL until 2019. pic.twitter.com/BYorCT7Tjn

— VfL Wolfsburg EN (@VfLWolfsburg_EN) August 1, 2016

It’s clearly a different case compared to the earlier transfers of  Ilkay Gundogan, Mats Hummels and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, seeing as the 30-year-old Poland international didn’t feature in head coach Thomas Tuchel’s plans for next season, but the loss of Kuba, as fans lovingly call him, will still be felt.

Hailed as Little Figo by Poland legend Zbigniew Boniek upon his arrival in Germany in 2007, per the club’s official website, Blaszczykowski became a key figure throughout the Jurgen Klopp era at the club, winning two Bundesliga titles and the DFB-Pokal while also starting 10 matches in the Black and Yellows’ magical UEFA Champions League run that ended in a heartbreaking loss against Bayern Munich at Wembley in 2013.

His club career hit a snag when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament just six minutes into the second half of the 2013/14 season. It turned out to be a lost year for the midfielder, who only returned to the pitch in December following a muscle injury that further complicated his recovery. He never looked quite the same in an utterly disappointing season for the club.

Two more injuries cost him important time in pre-season after the coaching change and, subsequently, Blaszczykowski never even made the squad in eight competitive matches under Tuchel before a loan move to Fiorentina on the last day of 2015’s summer transfer window.

In an interview with Spox.com (via ESPN FC’s Raphael Honigstein), the Pole “hinted that he felt he hadn’t been given a proper opportunity to prove himself” after making the move to Tuscany.

Early returns on his loan deal were positive, as La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Raffaele) rated him as the summer’s best transfer in October:

Gazzetta dello Sport ranked the best & worst summer signings so far. Blaszczykowski is the best, Bertolacci the worse pic.twitter.com/H6nWo0m9ft

— Raffaele (@ItalianoCalcio) October 9, 2015

However, injuries again took their toll, with Blaszczykowski appearing in 20 matches overall for La Viola. The club had the option to buy the winger for a relatively modest €6 million, according to Matteo Dovellini of La Repubblica (link in Italian), but didn’t execute it, which opened a …

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