Borussia Dortmund is a leading German professional soccer club. The team is often simply called Dortmund or BVB, which stands for the club’s full name, Ballspiel-Verein Borussia (Ball Game Club Borussia) 1909—the year of the club’s founding. Borussia is a Latin word for Prussia , a Germanic nation that preceded modern Germany. Borussia was also the name of a brewery once located near the club. Dortmund competes in the Bundesliga, Germany’s top soccer league. The team plays its home games at Westfalenstadion ( Westphalia Stadium) in Dortmund, a city in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Borussia Dortmund was founded in 1909. The club played in the West German FA (Football Association), one of the country’s top professional leagues before World War II (1939-1945). Soccer is called football in much of the world. The end of the war disrupted play, but Dortmund returned with the establishment of Oberliga West, the top German postwar league, in 1947. BVB won Germany’s annual club championship tournament in 1956, 1957, and 1963. Later in 1963, Dortmund began play in the newly established Bundesliga. The club won its first German Cup, Germany’s premier annual tournament, in 1965. BVB won the European Cup Winners’ Cup, a former tournament among Europe ’s domestic league champions, in 1966.
Dortmund suffered through poor seasons and financial difficulties in the 1970’s and 1980’s but recovered to claim another German Cup in 1989. The club won its first Bundesliga titles in 1995 and 1996. In 1997, BVB won the UEFA Champions League , Europe’s elite annual club tournament. UEFA stands for the Union of European Football Associations. Dortmund won the Bundesliga again in 2002, 2011, and 2012. The club also won the 2012 German Cup. The rivalry between Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 of nearby Gelsenkirchen is one of the fiercest in German soccer. FC stands for football club.
BVB has fielded a number of star players over its long history, including midfielders Lars Ricken, Matthias Sammer, and Michael Zorc; forwards Alfred Preissler and Karl-Heinz Riedle; defender Stefan Reuter; and goalkeeper Stefan Klos—all of Germany. More recent stars have included midfielders Mario Götze of Germany and Shinji Kagawa of Japan . For a discussion of soccer positions and formations, see Soccer (Players and officials) .
