Borussia Dortmund CEO: 'Our stars will stay'

Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke believes the club's star players will continue to stay.

In the past, the German champions have found it difficult to compete with the consistent loss of first team players each season to a bigger club.

However, the club have received a boost with Mario Gotze revealing that he is looking to stay at the club. Defender Mats Hummels is another player who has recently signed a long-term deal at the Signal Iduna Park. It is only Nuri Sahin – who is currently struggling at Real Madrid – that has left the club in recent history.

"The tendency to go to Bayern Munich has not been around for the past two years," Watzke told Der Westen.

"We have seen this through contract extensions, as with that of Mats Hummels. The players know that we are an ambitious club in which the individual is very much appreciated.

"With us, every player is fully integrated with his strengths and weaknesses. You can see in the example of Nuri Sahin what a player is capable of in the right environment. In another environment, he finds it much more difficult."

Dortmund currently sit three points behind Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga.