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Borussia Dortmund's hugely experienced centre-back Mats Hummels will remain at the club until June 2024 after the Germany international agreed terms on a one-year contract extension with the Bundesliga giants.

The 34-year-old FIFA World Cup winner has racked up 468 appearances for this season's Bundesliga title frontrunners - including 37 in the current campaign - since making his debut in Black-and-Yellow in 2008. Twice a Bundesliga winner with BVB, in 2011 and 2012, Hummels has also lifted two DFB Cups with the league leaders.

"I'm very happy that Mats Hummels is staying at Borussia Dortmund for another year; BVB and Mats simply belong together," Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said after Hummels penned his new deal. "He identifies very much with our club," Watzke continued.

Sebastian Kehl concurred, BVB's sporting director adding, "It's very good that Mats, with his experience and his leadership strength, will still be available to our young team in the coming season. He is a very, very important player for this team because he gives them a lot [in terms of] leadership."

Hummels is currently in his second stint with Dortmund, having previously left to rejoin his boyhood club, Bayern Munich, where he won three German top-flight titles between 2016 and 2019. A veteran of 416 Bundesliga games, Hummels is just one away from adding a seventh Meisterschale to his trophy cabinet. Dortmund lead rivals Bayern by two points going into the weekend's final round of games.

"Everyone knows how much fun I have playing at the Signal Iduna Park in front of our amazing fans," Hummels said after agreeing terms on his year-long extension. "I didn't take the decision lightly. It was a long deliberation process. Now, at the end of the season, I can say I'm really in the mood for another year," the defender added.

"From this point, the focus is on the game against Mainz on Saturday. We still have 90 intense minutes ahead of us. After that, we hope to celebrate something big together."

Borussia Dortmund are back in control of their own destiny after moving two points clear of defending champions Bayern Munich with one game to go in the most fiercely contested title race in Bundesliga history...

Dortmund went top following a 10-game unbeaten start to 2023, including nine wins, but were comfortably beaten in Munich on Matchday 26. A return to winning ways against third-placed Union followed, though, and they looked to be heading level on points with Bayern, until surrendering 2-0 and 3-2 leads in a dramatic encounter with relegation-threatened 10-man VfB Stuttgart. The rollercoaster of a title race then saw Dortmund take advantage of Bayern losing in Mainz on Matchday 29 to move top once more - one point clear of their rivals - with a thumping 4-0 win over Frankfurt.

However, they missed the chance to extend their lead after being held by Bochum in the Matchday 30 opener, and were subsequently knocked off top spot. Dortmund hit Wolfsburg for six on Matchday 31 and battered Gladbach 5-2 the following weekend, before reclaiming first place in Augsburg on Matchday 33. BVB now host Mainz on the final day, knowing that they must simply match Bayern's result in Cologne to be champions.

Top at Christmas and leaders at halfway, patchy new year form cost Bayern first place and Julian Nagelsmann his job in March. Thomas Tuchel made the perfect start to his tenure with a table-topping Klassiker win over BVB, before enacting revenge for his team's DFB Cup exit at the hands of Freiburg to stay two points clear. They slipped up at home to Hoffenheim on Matchday 28, drawing 1-1, before losing 3-1 in Mainz. However, the record champions subsequently recovered to regain top spot, and moved to within two games of the title with a sensational 6-0 victory over Schalke during Matchday 32.

Yet Tuchel's side fell to a 3-1 defeat at home to RB Leipzig on Matchday 33, despite taking the lead, meaning the title is now Dortmund's to lose. The Reds travel to Cologne on Matchday 34, needing to record a ninth straight win at the RheinEnergieStadion and hope that Dortmund fail to beat Mainz in order to win an 11th successive Bundesliga title.