Dortmund CEO expects Aubameyang to stay - for now

Berlin - Borussia Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke says he expects star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to remain with the Bundesliga giant - for now.

The Gabon hot-shot has hit 28 goals this season, including the hat-trick against Benfica on Wednesday which fired Dortmund into the Champions League quarter-finals.

He has scored seven goals in three games prior to Saturday's league match at Hertha Berlin.

The 27-year-old has a contract with Dortmund until 2020, but admitted in January that he is considering leaving in June to take "the next step" in his career.

He has made no secret he wants to eventually join Real Madrid to fulfill a promise he made to his grandfather just before he passed away.

"'Auba has a contract until 2020. We know what we have in him, but he also knows what he has with us," Watzke told German daily Bild.

Watzke says Aubameyang knows Dortmund's squad, including Germany's Marco Reus, plus teenagers Ousmane Dembele and Christian Pulisic, has the potential to challenge Bayern Munich's domination of the Bundesliga.

"I have not had the feeling on a single day since he has been with us that Auba wants to leave, and I believe that he feels that a big team is growing here," said Watzke.

"I also see how he gets on well with players like Dembele, Reus or Pulisic and all the others.

"That's why I'm not thinking about it at the moment."

Should Dortmund's prized hot-shot put in a transfer request, however, Watzke says the club will not stop him.

"What we have said is that if Auba wants to leave us, we will get together and discuss everything in peace, but, like I said, I do not have the feeling that is the case," said Watzke.

Should Aubameyang leave in June, Dortmund can command a much higher fee than the €13 million it reportedly paid Saint-Etienne for him in 2013. His current market value is around €65 million.

Having had to watch Robert Lewandowski leave for arch-rival Bayern in 2014 on a free transfer, Dortmund will not want to make the same mistake twice.