Since late November, Carsten Cramer has held expanded authority at Borussia Dortmund, adding communications and strategy to his existing brief across marketing, sales, digitalisation and internationalisation. The 57-year-old has wasted little time: personnel have changed, infrastructure investment has accelerated, and the language coming from the club's leadership has shifted in tone and ambition in ways many supporters had long stopped expecting. Whether Cramer can convert that momentum into lasting institutional change is now one of the most closely watched questions in German football culture.
A Club in Need of Renewal
BVB arrived at this juncture carrying considerable baggage. An abuse scandal involving a former senior official, a fractious and public dispute between incumbent president Dr Reinhold Lunow and former chief Hans-Joachim Watzke, and two underwhelming seasons on the pitch had collectively eroded the club's standing. The fan group Südtribüne Dortmund captured the mood bluntly in an open letter published last May, describing the club as "strategy-less" and accusing it of "perpetually fixing the same old mistakes with the same old methods." That kind of organised, articulate dissatisfaction from a core supporter base is difficult to dismiss. It signals not frustration with a single bad result, but a deeper loss of confidence in the institution itself.
Cramer has not attempted to reframe or minimise these issues. He has stated plainly that the club did not emerge with credit from the abuse affair — an acknowledgement of institutional failure that represents a departure from the defensive posture that characterised some of the Watzke years. His remark that he is "not a big fan of always looking to the past, because looking back too much eventually leads to a stiff neck" carried a pointed edge. For an organisation that had often relied on the memory of past glories as a substitute for a credible forward-looking vision, it was a significant declaration.
Personnel Decisions Signal Genuine Intent
The clearest evidence of Cramer's intent lies not in what he has said, but in what he has done. Long-serving Director of Communications Sascha Fligge was dismissed shortly after Cramer assumed his expanded role — a rapid and deliberate signal that continuity for its own sake would not be protected. The appointment of Ole Book as sporting director, drawn from second-division side SV Elversberg, was the decision that generated the most discussion. Book is relatively inexperienced at the highest level, which is precisely why the appointment was read as a statement rather than a safe choice. Cramer described him as "the missing piece of the puzzle," presenting the unconventional selection as evidence of institutional courage rather than a calculated risk.
Equally telling is Cramer's investment in the women's section, which he has long championed. The appointment of the highly respected Ralf Kellermann as sporting director for the women's side, alongside the high-profile signing of striker Alexandra Popp, places BVB among the clubs treating women's football as a genuine strategic priority rather than a peripheral obligation. A dedicated facility with its own pitches, adjacent to the men's training complex, is under development. The infrastructure commitment matters because bricks and mortar are harder to reverse than press conference promises.
The Weight of a Career Built on Persuasion
Understanding Cramer requires understanding his background. He did not arrive at the top of one of Europe's most commercially significant clubs through a conventional executive path. He sold sporting goods in a retail store. He worked as a stadium announcer for Preußen Münster and Hamburger SV. He studied law, then followed his instinct toward marketing and sales, entering professional football and building his reputation through commercial acumen and interpersonal intelligence. Since joining BVB in 2010, he has been the primary architect of a commercial operation whose annual turnover now comfortably exceeds half a billion euros. Sponsors have been drawn in at a steadily increasing rate, and Cramer's divisions account for a substantial share of that revenue.
That track record gave him the credibility and the institutional weight to eventually occupy the chief executive role. It also shaped his style. He is, by most accounts, a persuasive communicator who demonstrates genuine empathy — qualities that stand in contrast to the sometimes imperious manner that critics attributed to Watzke. Cramer's stated ambition is to rekindle the energy that surrounded the club during Jürgen Klopp's tenure, without simply recreating it. He has described himself as a "catalyst," a framing that acknowledges his role is to accelerate change already latent within the institution rather than to impose transformation from outside.
Accountability Lies Ahead
The current Bundesliga campaign has offered some encouragement: Dortmund are accumulating points at a rate not seen for several years, and qualification for next season's Champions League looks considerably more secure than it did in the two preceding campaigns. That context matters, because a period of relative stability on the pitch gives Cramer room to implement structural reforms without the added pressure of a crisis. But the window is not unlimited.
Cramer has stated the club's ambition with disarming directness: "Our ambition is not to be number two permanently. To achieve that, we must have this hunger, this obsession with winning. Throughout the entire club. In every department." That is the kind of language that creates expectations, and expectations at a club the size of BVB are not easily managed. Cramer acknowledged as much at Book's presentation: "That starts with me." The self-implication was deliberate. It is, ultimately, the right framing. The momentum he has generated is real. Whether the institution can sustain it — and whether the personnel choices prove correct — will determine how this chapter in BVB's history is eventually read.