Runner-up plays Champions League
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The article first appeared at 9:45 a.m. and has been updated with new information
Dino Toppmöller will probably move to the French Ligue 1 for the first time in his career. After “La Voix du Nord” and “L’Équipe” reported last night that the 45-year-old former Eintracht Frankfurt coach was among the narrow circle of candidates at RC Lens to succeed Pierre Sage, the impending agreement is now being reported. Toppmöller is expected to sign a two-year contract. He still has a contract with Eintracht that is valid until June 2028, which must first be terminated. The 47-year-old Sage is moving to Crystal Palace in South London as the successor to Oliver Glasner for a transfer fee of 3 million euros and bonuses of 2 million euros.
Before the focus on Toppmöller, Olivier Pantaloni was considered an opposing candidate in Lens, which will compete in the 2026/27 Champions League as runner-up. The 59-year-old is only under contract with Lens’ Ligue 1 rivals FC Lorient until the end of the season. In two years he managed 76 games there and scored an average of 1.76 points – as a promoted player, he finished tenth at the end of the 2025/26 season. Pantaloni previously worked with an interlude at FC Tours, first from 2009 to 2012 and then from 2014 to 2024 for AC Ajaccio in Corsica.
Toppmöller speaks fluent French and enjoys a good reputation in neighboring Germany, partly due to his time in Luxembourg and Belgium. He was player-coach at Hamm Benfica from 2014 to 2016 and then head coach and head of the football school at F91 Dudelange for three years. During that time he won a total of eight titles with the club, including the Luxembourg championship three times. He then worked for Royal Excelsior Virton in Wallonia, Belgium, for six months.
In 2020, he took the step as an assistant coach on the staff of then Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann, whom Toppmöller also followed to FC Bayern in 2021. Eintracht was his first position as head coach at the highest level from 2023 to 2026. In 121 games he scored an average of 1.55 points. At the beginning of January, however, Toppmöller had to resign from the Hessians.