5 stars who signed a new contract...and then left the following summer

#3 Ilkay Gundogan

Ilkay Gundogan's short contract with Borussia Dortmund may have benefited both sides

Playmaker Ilkay Gundogan cost Borussia Dortmund a bargain fee of less than £4m back in the summer of 2011, and he had an immediate impact on the team’s fortunes – he played 28 times in his debut season as Dortmund won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, and in 2012/13, he helped his side to the final of the Champions League – even scoring a penalty in the final, although Dortmund eventually lost 2-1 to domestic rivals Bayern Munich.

Unfortunately, with Dortmund unable to pay the kind of wages that other giant European clubs could, it always seemed unlikely that they would keep hold of a player of Gundogan’s talents.

Despite this feeling, Gundogan signed a new deal with Dortmund in April 2014 that would keep him around until the summer of 2016 at least. This was a contract he stuck to, but a year later it appeared that it would likely be his last deal with the club.

On the 30th April 2015 it was announced that Gundogan had no intention of renewing his contract with Dortmund, and with rumours of a move to Manchester United emerging, the only question seemed to be whether he’d be sold or whether he’d walk for free in the summer of 2016.

So it came as quite a shocker just two months later when Dortmund announced they’d inked a new deal with him to keep him at the club until 2017.

As with Fabian Delph, there was no news on the financial terms of the deal, but it was expected that he’d received quite the hike in pay. Evidently, it wasn’t enough. In the summer of 2016 – the original point in which Gundogan was expected to leave – he indeed departed to Manchester – but to City, not United. New boss Pep Guardiola paid £20m for the player, although injuries restricted him to just 10 Premier League appearances in his debut season.

It’s likely that the deal Gundogan signed in 2015 was simply done to ensure Dortmund received a decent fee for the player when he did leave, rather than allowing him to move on a free transfer or for a cut-price deal in the January 2016 transfer window. It was a smart move from both parties, essentially.