Borussia Dortmund responded promptly at medical problems that facing lately Jurgen Klopp, who sees himself lacking of services of central defender Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels, both injured.
As a result, Dortmund has signed a contract until the end of the season with former German international Manuel Friedrich, reached at the age of 34 years. The contract between the two parties will expire in June 2014.
Friedrich, 1.89 meters tall, has played between 1998 and 2002, respectively 2004 and 2007 for FSV Mainz. Between 2002 and 2004 he wore the jersey of Werder Bremen and between 2007 and 2013 was a Bayer Leverkusen player. In total, Friedrich has 247 matches in the Bundesliga, and has scored 15 goals.
“I am delighted that I will have the occasion to play for Borussia Dortmund. Till now, I had the pleasure of playing at the stadium of this team just from the position of the opponent,” said Friedrich to the official site of the UEFA Champions League finalists.
Dortmund will play this weekend an extremely important match in the economy of this edition of the championship. They will take on rival Bayern Munich. Currently the Bavarians are four points ahead of Borussia. If the Bundesliga champions leave Signal Iduna Park with all the points at stake, it will be hard for the team in Dortmund to close the seven points gap in the season, even if the match is only in the 13th round of the German championship.