6 famous players who switched between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund

#4 Mats Hummels

Believe it or not, but Mats Hummels has actually spent more time at Bayern Munich than at Borussia Dortmund. The defender started his career at Bayern’s academy when he was just a six-year-old kid. He spent 11 years at the academy before playing for Bayern Munich II – the reserve team that plays in the lower divisions.

He eventually made his debut for the first team in the last game of the 2006/07 season. But that was his only appearance in a Bayern shirt at the time and, after playing a few more games for the reserves, he was loaned to Borussia Dortmund in January 2008.

It was during his first full season in 2008/09 that he came to the forefront thanks to a successful centre-back partnership with Serbian defender Neven Subotic. Dortmund would eventually sign him on a permanent transfer in 2009 for a fee of €4 million and the defensive partnership proved to be the bedrock for Dortmund’s title triumph when they won the 2010/11 Bundesliga title conceding just 22 goals all season – a record until Bayern conceded 18 in 2012/13.

However, Hummels soon made the decision to move back to Munich for the sake of his family and the Dortmund captain made the switch back to Bayern in the summer of 2016 – a move that saw the Signal Iduna Park faithful boo him in Bayern’s Super Cup win. But Hummels was classy enough to let it slide and even gave away his jersey to a young Dortmund fan.