Konstantinos Karetsas Shines in Super Cup Debut for Borussia Dortmund

Konstantinos Karetsas needed only one night to announce himself in Germany.

Borussia Dortmund lost the German Super Cup 2-1 to Bayern Munich at Signal Iduna Park, but the conversation as the crowd filed out was not just about the scoreline. It was about an 18-year-old Greece international making his first appearance in yellow and black and playing as if the stage had always belonged to him.

Given a surprise start, Karetsas immediately showed why Dortmund paid 30 million euros to bring him in from Genk this summer. He demanded the ball, twisted away from pressure and threaded passes through tight gaps, his dribbling and vision jolting the home fans to their feet on several occasions. Every sharp turn, every disguised pass drew a murmur, then a roar. For a debutant, he looked alarmingly at ease.

Dortmund supporters had heard the numbers. They now had the visuals to match.

Last season with Genk, Karetsas broke into the first team at an unusually young age and refused to play like a prospect. He delivered 11 assists and scored twice in the Belgian league, then added five more assists across 11 Europa League games. Those are senior numbers, not academy projections, and they persuaded Dortmund to move quickly.

The Super Cup offered his first major test in Germany. It also delivered an early, heavyweight endorsement.

According to Bild, Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany left Signal Iduna Park genuinely taken by what he had just seen from the teenager. Dortmund correspondent Michel Schroder recounted how he bumped into Kompany in the stadium corridors after the final whistle and struck up a conversation about the club’s new signing.

Kompany did not play it down. He described Karetsas as “very good” and told Schroder to keep a close eye on him. There was no sense of polite small talk. Schroder noted that the way the Bayern coach spoke suggested he had known the player for a long time and made it clear: Kompany likes him a lot.

The admiration did not stop there. Schroder himself believes Karetsas has the tools to grow into one of Dortmund’s leading figures over the coming years and sees the potential for him to become a fan favourite sooner rather than later. On the evidence of one high-profile outing, that prediction does not feel far-fetched.

Dortmund still walked away empty-handed on the night. Karetsas could not turn the tide or wrest the Super Cup away from the German champions. But in a match built to showcase established stars, it was the teenager from Genk, via Greece and Belgium, who carved out a new storyline.

The trophy slipped away. The message did not: a new playmaker has arrived, and the Bundesliga’s biggest clubs are already watching him closely.