This season's Bundesliga title race is shaping up to be quite possibly the most competitive in history. With more than half of the season completed, six teams are still in contention to claim the league title. Two of those teams faced off during the most recent matchday when Borussia Dortmund hosted SC Freiburg.
To the surprise of just about everyone, Dortmund completely took Freiburg apart in a dominant 5-1 victory. Although five different Dortmund players scored for Die Schwarzgelben, one name among the five goalscorers understandably stood out: Sébastien Haller, who scored his first goal for the club since returning from testicular cancer. To make the moment even more poignant, this match took place on World Cancer Day.
By any measure, Dortmund had weathered a turbulent off-season before the current campaign began. In July of last year, Manchester City signed superstar centre-forward Erling Haaland from Dortmund for the astonishingly low transfer fee of €60 million. To put this figure into perspective, Haaland's true transfer value at the time was €150 million - 250% of what City actually paid to sign the Norwegian.
It wasn't long after that when Haller revealed that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. What made this even more of a blow for Dortmund was the fact that the club had just signed the Ivorian striker from Ajax. Thus, Dortmund's slow start to the season came as little surprise. After 10 matchdays, Dortmund were way off the pace; they were eighth in the league at the time and had accumulated just four points from their preceding five league matches. At that point, Dortmund's prospects for the rest of the season were undeniably grim.
However, ever since returning from the league's extended mid-season break, Dortmund have been just about the complete opposite of what they had been before it. Dortmund's current four-match winning streak in which they have scored 13 goals has carried them up to third place in the league, just two points behind surprise league leaders Union Berlin. Just like that, Dortmund find themselves firmly in the midst of the Bundesliga title race.
It is no coincidence that Dortmund's surge in form has come alongside Haller's return to the field. Having spent half a year fighting for his life, Haller's very presence in the matchday squad has served to inspire and galvanize the rest of the team. Even if Haller does not score another goal for the rest of the season, his return might just turn out to be the "X-factor" that propels Dortmund to a first league title since 2012.
Additionally, that scenario is almost certainly not going to happen. Once Haller is fully back into the swing of things, the goals should start coming back. It must not be forgotten that Haller is a proven marksman who is fresh off a breakout season at Ajax. What's more, his prior two-season Bundesliga stint at Eintracht Frankfurt was also fairly successful; Haller scored 15 league goals in the 2018-19 season to help keep the club in contention for a 2019-20 Champions League spot for almost the whole season until a late slump knocked them down to a seventh-place league finish.
Although Haller's return may add just one more available player to Dortmund's roster, its symbolic impact goes far beyond that. Though it may be true that occurrences such as this are "bigger than football", it is also equally true that these same occurrences can (and usually do) have an impact on the associated club's play. Considering how tight the race for the Bundesliga crown is right now, every club in it needs any and every edge which might be obtained. For Dortmund, Haller's return might be exactly that. On top of that, Haller's return will surely make Dortmund the neutrals' pick - the "sentimental favourite" due to the narrative which has now developed around them.
Should Borussia Dortmund somehow defy the odds and become champions of Germany for the first time in more than a decade, Haller's story will undoubtedly become an iconic part of Dortmund and Bundesliga lore. In a season full of twists and turns, this latest boost to Dortmund's title hopes might end up being the most decisive one of all - one so great that it may even end up overriding Haaland's bargain-bin departure last July.
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