THE VITALS:

Team: Borussia Dortmund

Brand: Puma

Era: 2016-17 (Used for the 2016 DFB-Pokal Final, the 2016-17 Bundesliga Season, and the 2016 DFL-Supercup match)

Name/Number: Sokratis #25

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

This shirt comes to you in very good condition, in fact, had the black staining to the front of the shirt and the smudging from the name and numbering not been present, I would have had no doubt in saying this shirt was in excellent condition.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Medium

Pit to Pit Measurement: 19 inches

Shirt Length: 30.5 inches 

Made by Puma in their Dry Cell range of shirts which they introduced in 2016; while the length is a little longer than expected; this shirt is still a fine size medium fitting football shirt.

DESCRIPTION:

Puma’s fifth domestic home shirt they produced for Borussia Dortmund would be the first of theirs in the domestic range to use vertical stripes, and the first Dortmund home shirt since 2000-01 to bear black and yellow thick block vertical stripes. In a further testimony to Puma’s ability to make artistically unique shirts for ‘Der BVB’; this shirt would still look different to any of their previous iterations – including the European home shirt used in 2012-13 which was also a black and yellow striped offering. This shirt would be worn in Thomas Tuchel’s second and final season at the helm where the club avenged their 2016 DFB-Pokal Final disappointment in 2016 when they went on to win the cup in 2017! This would also be the home shirt worn by Ousmane Dembele in his one and only season with the club before he moved on to Barcelona for an incredible €102 million! This would also be the season that Mario Gotze made his homecoming three seasons after leaving for Bayern Munich in 2013 and also for Raphael Guerreiro, who joined the club after winning Euro 2016 with Portugal.

THE SEASON:

Thomas Tuchel would enjoy a fantastic debut season at the helm at Signal Iduna Park in 2015-16 – dragging the club back from the potential obscurity they were facing after a disappointing 2014-15 season; finishing 2^nd place in the Bundesliga – going unbeaten at home in the process, and finishing as runners-up in the DFB-Pokal and coming within a whisker of reaching the Europa League semi-final.

It should come as no surprise then that their most prized assets were again in the cross-hairs of rivals, both domestically and across Europa; and would have wave goodbye to the likes of: Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan, Henrikh Mkhityarayan, Jakub Błaszczykowski and Moritz Leitner as they all moved on in the summer of 2016.

There would be a raft of arrivals to compensate however, as the club prepared to battle Bayern Munich in the post-Pep Guardiola era and also for their return to the Champions League as Mikel Merino, Marc Bartra, Emre Mor, Alexander Isak, Ousmane Dembele, Raphael Guerreiro, Sebastian Rode, Andre Scurrle and the retuning Mario Gotze joined the squad in the close season.

The 2016-17 Bundesliga season began with a 2-1 win over Thomas Tuchel’s former club – Mainz, however, they would be felled 1-0 away against newly promoted RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena in their next outing in a sign of what was the unfold that season. The 2016 portion of the season would be stark in contrast to the 2016 half of the previous season with Dortmund just 6 of the 14 remaining league games of the year – one of those wins however, did come on 19^th November when they beat Bayern Munich 1-0 at Signal Iduna Park. Following that win over the champions; they were just 6 points behind Leipzig who were in 1^st place, however, the year would end with them falling 12 points behind Bayern who had claimed pole position ahead of the winter break.

2017 would fortunately see a lot of the draws converted to wins and would move within 3 points on 2^nd place Leipzig after 25 games played – beating the season’s surprise package 1-0 in the reverse fixture on 19^th February. Dortmund would eventually overcome a resurgent Hoffenheim – winning the crunch match-day 32 meeting at Signal Iduna Park on 6^th May to seize the all-important 3^rd place finish for their own.

The German football curtain-raiser began with Dortumund and Bayern Munich clashing for the DFL-Supercup, however, their 14^th August showdown would end in disappointment for the ‘Der BVB’ as they were beaten 2-0 at their home ground. They would get their revenge later in the season however, as the two German giants would meet again in the semi-final of the DFB-Pokal on 26^th April 2017; with Dortmund coming from 2-1 down to win the contest 3-2! They would then go on to defeat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 in the 27^th May Final in Berlin in what would be Thomas Tuchel’s last game in charge of the club.

Borussia Dortmund’s return to the UEFA Champions League began in Group F alongside: Legia Warsaw, Sporting CP and the defending champions – Real Madrid. Dortmund would enjoy a brilliant Group Stage campaign – going unbeaten; winning 4, including respective 6-0 and 8-4 wins over Legia Warsaw and battling to a pair of 2-2 draws with Real Madrid to top the group as the highest scoring team of the entire Group Stage with 21 goals scored. Their 21 goals scored in the Group Stage would in-fact, set the record for the most goals scored in a single Group Stage!

In the Round of 16; Dortmund would overcome a 1-0 deficit in the 1^st Leg against Benfica to win 4-0 in the 2^nd Leg before they were drawn against an exciting AS Monaco side in the quarter-finals. In a sinister turn of events; the Dortmund team bus would be the subject of a foiled terrorist attack with explosions taking place close to the team’s bus and the 1^st Leg at Signal Iduna Park would need to be played the following day on 12^th April. Still reeling from the shock of the events of the night before; Dortmund would be beaten 3-2 at home, before falling 3-1 in the Principality.

The notable players that season were:

Andre Schurrle, Alexander Isak, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele, Marco Reus, Adrian Ramos, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Christian Pulisic, Mario Gotze, Shinji Kagawa, Kevin Groskreutz, Julian Weigl, Felix Passlack, Gonzalo Castro, Mikel Merino, Emre Mor, Sebatian Rode, Sven Bender, Nuri Sahin, Matthias Ginter, Sokratis, Lukasz Piszczek, Marcel Schmelzer, Raphael Guerreiro, Marc Bartra, Park Joo-ho, Erik Durm, Roman Burki, Roman Weidenfeller