Situation at Borussia Dortmund: Blockade at the ball game club

The ball game club Borussia Dortmund has once again followed its strategy of blaming the coach for a misfortune. His wish was that “the club finally finds peace.” But there are no signs of that.

Matthias Sammer implored “Riot Headlines” up that he “now you see”because the sports director of Borussia Dortmund, Lars Ricken, withdrew the support of the – now former – coach of Borussia Dortmund, Nuri Şahin.

That Matthias Sammer receives a good fee from Borussia Dortmund for his work as an “external consultant”. Amazon’s streaming service “Prime Video”, which broadcast BVB’s defeat in the Champions League at FC Bologna, also pays Sammer money.

That proved to be a good investment on Tuesday (January 21, 2025), as Sammer produced what he would probably call riot headlines. Borussia Dortmund is in one “physical and mental non-constitution”Sammer stated that the team could neither defend, “But she can’t attack either”.

On the one hand, this was an inventory that even fans of the Borussia ball game club agree with, but on the other hand, it was also an extremely remarkable moment due to his paid work for the club in decline, currently tenth in the Bundesliga.

Sahin: “It’s about this club finally finding peace”

The interview with Nuri Şahin received far less attention. “That’s not the point”said the now former coach when asked whether he thought he would still be responsible in the Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen on Saturday. “It’s about this club finally finding peace”he said, and then he repeated it and added, “that we have no secondary theaters of war.”

Tolerated differences

Such a wish should be a consensus within a company, but the limited partnership listed on the stock exchange has been living with significant – including personal – differences between people at the highest and middle management levels for years. What is particularly publicly known is the relationship between Sven Mislintat and Sebastian Kehl, which Matthias Sammer would perhaps describe as a “non-relationship”.

Mislintat is technical director, and he was brought back knowing that Sebastian Kehl was there, and who even aspired to move from sports director to managing director of sports.

This wish was denied to him, instead Lars Ricken should be built up in this position to become a face that should replace Hans-Joachim Watzke as the face of the management (which also includes Carsten Cramer/Marketing and Thomas Treß/Finance). comments on sporting developments.

Watzke and the long list of trainers after the decision of his life

Watzke is fading into the background, at least that’s how it appears on the surface, because he is leaving the management at his own decision at the end of the calendar year.

On paper, this has a significant impact on his power at the club. But we also hear from the club that “Aki”, as most people call him, will not be able to let go.

Hans-Joachim Watzke has been the boss at BVB for 20 years now. He holds important positions at the German Football League (DFL), and by virtue of his position also at the German Football Association (DFB), he sits on the executive committee of the European association UEFA and counts many powerful people from the football industry (and also politics) among his friends .

No decision against the will of the boss

Hans-Joachim Watzke doesn’t make every decision at Borussia Dortmund, but none is made against him either. He is the chief strategist. He saved the club from financial ruin in 2005 and made the sporting decision of his life in 2008 when he brought in Jürgen Klopp.

The coaches after that were Thomas Tuchel, Peter Bosz, Peter Stöger, Lucien Favre, Edin Terzić, Marco Rose, Edin Terzić again and finally Nuri Şahin.

Terzić and Şahin embodied the longing for black and yellow Borussia to keep their club at the top of German football since childhood. Terzić left despite having made it to the final of the Champions League with the team.

New contract for Kehl despite concerns

With her 1-0 lead in Bologna, Şahin was in third place in the blitz table in the Champions League, but when the coach was released she had slipped to 13th place.

FC Bologna had scored one goal in the previous six games, and against BVB they scored two in a minute and a half. Dortmund had lost for the fourth time in a row, with some players on the pitch with whom national coach Julian Nagelsmann wants to become world champion in 2026. Players who cost between 20 and 30 million euros in transfer fees.

This now falls back to Sebastian Kehl, who is primarily responsible for the transfers and who was given a new contract valid until 2027 a few days ago. The club has been hearing for months that there are concerns. They were even packaged in a friendly way in the communication that the club sent out about the contract extension. There is not a single word of praise for the sports director’s work. “Sebastian and I have known and trusted each other for many years,” is the first sentence that Lars Ricken is quoted as saying.

They know each other, they have played together, they have experienced bad times together, they became champions together – the smell of the stable as a strategy.

Why do so many good footballers in Dortmund become worse?

Kehl was praised for this, and it still seems like a good deal to get the then 21-year-old Maximilian Beier for the amount that the sale of the 31-year-old Niclas Füllkrug to West Ham United brought in.

But Beier drags himself around the pitch without any orientation or self-confidence, Waldemar Anton feels the same way, and Nico Schlotterbeck too. Good footballers have not gotten better at Borussia Dortmund for years. When things are going well, they maintain their level, but many fall off.

Is this a problem with the coaches, the size of the club, the climate in the club? They haven’t found a conclusive answer to this in Dortmund for years, and even external consultants with proven football knowledge only seem to see the problems but not find any solutions.

The strategy of trying new trainers at short intervals is gradually starting to be seen as a failure.