Leader of men stepped up with German champions (8)

I believe the answer is:

dortmund

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'leader of men stepped up with german champions' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'leader of men stepped up with german' is the wordplay.
'leader of' suggests taking the first letters.
'stepped' becomes 'trod' ('tread' can be a synonym of 'step').
'up' is a reversal indicator (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'german' becomes 'und' (I've seen this in other clues).
The first letter of 'men' is 'm'.
'm'+'trod'='mtrod'
'mtrod' in reverse letter order is 'dortm'.
'dortm'+'und'='DORTMUND'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for dortmund that I've seen is " German city".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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