Die Champions

Claudio is from Chile, Mohammed from Ghana, Francis and Heiko are German. They dream of becoming professional footballers and have just joined the youth academy run by the famous Borussia Dortmund club, whose star junior team has won the German championship several times. But it takes more than talent’ For a seventeen-year-old, it is hard to cope with the iron-fisted discipline and humiliations sometimes imposed by the coaches. Hard to face being separated from one’s family, speaking a foreign language and living in a new world. Not to mention the injuries that are always a risk when the body is forced to its limits. For three years, the filmmakers followed each of these four youngsters as their dreams came face to face with reality, on the pitch, at school or in the privacy of their room.