He once set a Bundesliga record in a Borussia Dortmund jersey. Now Paco Alcacer is clubless.

In recent years, Borussia Dortmund has had some remarkable strikers in its ranks. Currently, it is Serhou Guirassy, after players such as Erling Haaland, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Robert Lewandowski went on goal-scoring sprees for BVB. Often forgotten is a striker who caused a stir in the black and yellow jersey for a year and a half starting in the summer of 2018: Paco Alcacer. The Spaniard can look back on an exceptional goal-scoring record for BVB and brought the Bundesliga club around €23 million when he left at the beginning of 2020. However, Alcacer has now reached a low point: at the age of 31, he is without a club. Alcacer played in the United Arab Emirates until the end of June, when his contract with Sharjah FC expired. What does the future hold for the 19-time international (twelve goals)? It is still unclear. This development was not apparent during his time at BVB. Alcacer joined from FC Barcelona in the summer of 2018, six months after Aubameyang’s departure. Initially on loan, Borussia later signed the Spaniard on a permanent basis.
And Alcacer delivered right from the start: he scored in seven of his first eight Bundesliga appearances, netting ten goals in that period. By the end of the season, he had scored 18 goals in 26 games. What was particularly impressive about this already strong record was that Alcacer scored ten times as a substitute – no one had ever achieved this in a Bundesliga season before, meaning Alcacer could celebrate a record as a super sub.

But he was probably not happy with it. “I’m a happy, funny person, but when I’m sitting on the bench, I don’t like anything anymore, then I’m a complicated guy,” Alcacer said in an interview at the time. In the following season, the offensive player was still unable to establish himself as a regular starter. Injuries slowed him down, but he still scored five goals in eleven games. In the winter, Erling Haaland arrived, and Alcacer returned to Spain after scoring a total of 26 goals in 47 appearances. He scored on average every 94 minutes for BVB. In late summer 2022, he moved to the Emirates, where he has hardly played a role recently. The coming months will show whether Alcacer can regain his former strength.