Munich's Mats Open to Future Return to Borussia

Mats Hummels

Bayern Munich defender Mats Hummels has not ruled out a return to Borussia Dortmund one day.

Hummels, 28, progressed through all of Bayern’s youth teams but made just one league appearance for the Bavarians before opting to join Dortmund — initially on loan and then permanently in 2009. He rejoined the Bundesliga champions last summer for a fee of €35 million from BVB.
Asked on ZDFneo TV show “Schulz & Bohmermann” if he would consider a move back to Dortmund, Hummels said: “Theoretically, yes, I would, even though I probably really shouldn’t say this.”
Hummels signed a five-year deal at Bayern last summer following eight-and-a-half years at their biggest rivals Dortmund, where he won the Bundesliga in consecutive seasons under Jurgen Klopp in 2011 and 2012.
The Germany international said he took steps to avoid stirring up controversy in preparation for the move.
“You remove yourself a little from the media and don’t read too much. I completely ignored my Facebook page,” he said.

He also criticised the decision to play his former side’s Champions League quarterfinal tie against Monaco less than 24 hours after the team coach was subject to a bomb attack in April.

“I found it gross. I wouldn’t have rescheduled it and wouldn’t have played in it,” he said.
“Of course, it’s a question of whether there was an alternative to playing or whether going out of the competition would be tolerated [for not playing], but in my view there had to be a break.”
Hummels, who won the Bundesliga title with Bayern last season, said he would relish the prospect of a relegation dogfight in the future, having spent the winter break in the drop zone during Jurgen Klopp’s final season at the Westfalenstadion before recovering to finish seventh.
“I actually told a friend a few weeks ago I would like to battle against relegation again,” he said. “We did that in Dortmund following the 2014 World Cup. We were suddenly 18th [bottom of the Bundesliga]. It was cool as we managed to rise up the table. I don’t know if it’s so cool when you actually get relegated.”