Borussia Dortmund have appointed Nuri Sahin as their new head coach after Edin Terzic left the club by mutual consent.
The 35-year-old former midfielder has signed a three-year contract with the defeated Champions League finalists, having returned to the club in an assistant coaching role earlier this season.
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Sahin — who spent two spells at Dortmund as a player — was appointed, alongside Sven Bender, as an assistant coach to Terzic in December, prior to the club’s run to the Champions League final.
He left his role as head coach of Turkish Super Lig club Antalyaspor — his first managerial position — after 26 months to return to the German club.
🤝 Nuri #Sahin wird BVB-Cheftrainer! Der 35-Jährige, der in seiner Karriere insgesamt 274 Pflichtspiele für Schwarzgelb absolviert hat, erhält einen bis zum 30. Juni 2027 gültigen Vertrag! ✍️
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) June 14, 2024
Sahin joined Dortmund’s youth system as a 13-year-old and made 153 first-team appearances in his first stint with the club before joining Real Madrid in 2011.
The former Turkey international made just 10 appearances at Madrid before spending the first half of the 2012-13 season on loan at Liverpool, where he played 12 games.
Sahin returned to Dortmund on loan in January 2013 and spent the next 18 months at the club before making the move permanent in the summer of 2014.
He made 121 appearances in total for the Bundesliga club before spending two seasons at German rivals Werder Bremen and concluding his playing career by spending the 2020-21 season at Antalyaspor, before his appointment as their head coach.
GO DEEPER
Edin Terzic's Dortmund exit - Champions League gloss masked deeper problems
Sahin has already established Dortmund authority
Analysis by The Athletic’s German football correspondent Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Nuri Sahin is a creative and smart choice by Borussia Dortmund.
Sahin arrived at the club in December, as one of two new assistants to Edin Terzic. During Dortmund’s winter training camp in Marbella, he was immediately commanding in sessions designed to improve the team’s attacking structures. Sahin is no soft touch. He can be forthright with players and demanding when they do not meet his standards in drills. His coaching personality is different to Terzic’s in that respect, and changing the atmosphere around the first team is evidently part of Dortmund’s forward planning.
There is still some overlap, though. Like Terzic, Sahin was born locally. He grew up in Ludenscheid, which is 50km from Dortmund. His history with the club goes way back, too. He played for Jurgen Klopp between 2008 and 2011, but had been at the club since the age of 13.
This is no happy coincidence. Dortmund put great stock in their own and have great faith in people who have grown up inside the club. Lars Ricken is now the CEO for sport. Sebastian Kehl is the sporting director. Both were celebrated ex-players. Sahin is a third and that was a strong part of his candidacy.
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But not more so than his performance. Alongside Sven Bender, another former player, who joined the coaching staff at the same time, Sahin’s effect on the standard of training has been widely praised by players. He was also credited as being the architect of the improved attacking football Dortmund played in the second half of last season, including the better moments that occurred during the run to the Champions League final.
Sahin’s only previous head coaching role was with Antalyaspor, so in a sense this represents a leap of faith. Nevertheless, he will take control with plenty of authority already established, and with much appreciation for work he has already completed.
(Jurgen Fromme – firo sportphoto/Getty Images)