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Reinier, 18 at the time, arrived in Germany with high hopes.
The Brazilian attacker signed for Borussia Dortmund on a two-year loan deal from Real Madrid, having joined the Spanish giants from Flamengo in January 2020 on a $36 million deal. He was the latest Brazilian starlet to make the move to the Bernabeu, as Madrid had previously bought Vinícius, also from Flamengo, and Rodrygo Goes from Santos, each for over $50 million.
Dortmund unveiled new signing Reinier pic.twitter.com/xYBXktIFiN
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 19, 2020
Real Madrid allowed Reinier, whom it beat competition from Barcelona and Manchester City to sign, to go on loan to Dortmund having previously seen a similar deal prove successful. Wingback Achraf Hakimi thrived during a two-year loan spell from Madrid at the Westfalenstadion, making 73 appearances for Die Schwarzgelben before being sold to Inter Milan last summer.
Upon his arrival in Germany, Reinier said: "The club is known for taking a chance on young players and making them better. I want to learn, play a lot and help the team to be successful."
It has been anything but smooth sailing, though — the youngster made just four appearances under Lucien Favre before the manager's departure in December following a 5-1 rout by Stuttgart. Reinier was also forced into a spell on the sidelines after testing positive for Covid-19.
It was reported by AS in January that those in Reinier's circle were "very angry with the situation" and potentially looking to cut the loan deal short. Dortmund and sporting director Michael Zorc were happy to retain the Brazilian, though, and said they would not move to initiate a departure.
"We have a lot of competition in attack," Zorc said in early January. "We basically don’t want to give him up. Of course, I’ll listen to everything. If someone is dissatisfied because he has too few opportunities, then you talk to each other, but we will not take the initiative ourselves."
A few weeks later, interim manager Edin Terzic voiced support for Reinier, saying in a pre-match press conference: "He's a very talented player who works hard on himself. He definitely deserves the chance in the near future."
Terzic proved true to his word, as Reinier played 20 minutes off the bench the next day in the game against Freiburg. He then played 10 minutes in the 4-0 derby victory over Schalke last week.
While still yet to start a game, Reinier has been slowly accumulating playing time, with another 10-minute cameo on Saturday against Arminia Bielefeld.
He repaid his manager's faith immediately — within 30 seconds of coming onto the pitch, the Brazilian had tucked away a pass from Erling Haaland to secure his first Dortmund goal and put the side up 3-0.
marco reus passed his magic to reinier when they did the high five thing pic.twitter.com/zcOGA7kbce
— ً (@schwarzgeIben) February 27, 2021
The excitement was clear to see in his face, and the whole team joined in to celebrate his maiden goal in Germany. Reinier will be hoping to earn more playing time on the back of his goal-scoring display, with Dortmund set to face Borussia Mönchengladbach — whose manager, Marco Rose, it has poached away in securing his services from the start of next season — in the DFB Pokal in midweek before Der Klassiker against Bayern next Saturday.
