0 of 10

Mike Carlson/Getty Images

In recent years, Borussia Dortmund have invested a lot of money in their youth academy. The club was famous for integrating a lot of young players into their squad in the successful years under Jurgen Klopp, but not many of those came from their own academy.

One player who did make it through the Black and Yellows' youth ranks to star for the first team still serves as the poster child for Dortmund's ability to develop young prospects: Mario Gotze.

The World Cup winner came to the club at the tender age of eight in 2001, performed well for all their youth teams and debuted for Klopp's outfit in November 2009.

It's certainly unfair to hold Dortmund's current prospects to the standards set by a once-in-a-generation talent, but some of them have shown the potential to follow in the now-23-year-old's footsteps nonetheless.

BVB are set to reap the rewards of their investment in the academy in the coming years, which was "awarded the highest-possible rating of three stars" in Germany's rating system in December, as the club proudly announced on its website.

Here B/R ranks the top 10 talents the Black and Yellows have to offer. We'll include a number of players from Dortmund's second team, which plays in Germany's fourth division, the Regionalliga.