Borussia Dortmund is playing the worst first half of the season in 10 (!) years in the 2024/25 season and in 2025 all four competitive games were lost. The Nuri Sahin dismissal was long overdue!
So far, the BVB bosses have hesitated and everyone in football-Germany wondered how long they would put up with the anemic and shameful performances of this millionaire squad, which those in charge like to talk up as a title contender, under the direction of the struggling coaching apprentice.
But after the 1:2 Champions League failure in Bologna and the fourth defeat in 2025, the time had finally come!
Who will be the new BVB coach and would be the right successor to Sahin at BVB? A quick check!
Next BVB coach: Who would be a suitable Nuri Sahin successor?
After the overdue Nuri Sahin dismissal at BVB, the big question in the black and yellow cosmos now arises: Who will be the new BVB coach and thus Sahin’s successor?
How long did the BVB bosses around Aki Watzke, Lars Ricken and Sebastian Kehl think about it before they finally pulled the ripcord after much hesitation and procrastination?
Here are a few well-known candidates and an interesting tip in case BVB wants to go with a homegrown coach again!
Urs Fischer as the next BVB coach?
A coach who has caused a sensation in recent years with an underdog team with limited abilities – that’s all the overrated Dortmund team is at the moment, even if some of the black-and-yellow reality deniers would like to see them on a par with Bayern Munich – is Urs Fischer.
The Swiss was at Union Berlin from 2018 to 2023 and led the Irons from the 2nd Bundesliga to the Champions League. With his calm manner and experience, he could steer the black and yellow ship back into calmer waters.
Sahin successor: There is a lot to be said for Erik ten Hag
Another BVB candidate after Nuri Sahin’s dismissal is Erik ten Hag. The Dutchman has been unsuccessful at Manchester United recently, but was very successful at Ajax Amsterdam before that.
Fun Fact: Dortmund consultant Matthias Sammer brought ten Haag to FC Bayern during his time at Bayern – as a coach for the second team. Is Sammer now bringing him to BVB as Sahin’s successor?
So far, there has been no official request from Borussia Dortmund, but according to rumors, the 54-year-old Dutchman was approached weeks ago.
A German option as the new BVB coach after Sahin’s sacking would be Roger Schmidt, who was most recently at Benfica Lisbon and became most there in 2023.
Across all competitions, he has an average of 2.26 points from his time there – and he also has Bundesliga experience with Bayer Leverkusen.
The fact is that the 57-year-old has been discussed by BVB bosses from time to time in the past. Ultimately, however, they have always opted for someone else.
However, there are arguments against Schmidt as Sahin’s successor: he does not want to take a job in the winter and is also said to have reservations about the current management structure in Dortmund. Understandable somehow.
Will Niko Kovac be the new BVB coach?
As the new BVB coach, Niko Kovac would also be an option that Dortmund should consider.
Kovac has been without a club since he left VfL Wolfsburg in March 2024 and is currently working as an expert. His experience – including with big clubs – would be an argument in favor of Kovac as the next Dortmund coach. At Bayern Munich, for example, he won league titles and the cup.
Even if one should not talk about winning titles in Dortmund at the moment, Kovac has proven with Eintracht Frankfurt, among other things, that he can lead a team out of a crisis and even to a title.
For many experts, Kovac would be the ideal solution as the next BVB coach because he demands discipline and is also known for being tough. With a contract until the summer, he would not have to take into account the sensitivities and animosities of the effeminate BVB divas.
However, there is one thing that speaks against Kovac as the new BVB coach – even if only until the summer: He was not exactly successful at VfL Wolfsburg. His points average with the wolf pack was a modest 1.30.
Who else could be a possible next BVB coach and thus a successor to Nuri Sahin at Borussia Dortmund?
Sky expert Lothar Matthäus, for example, has suggested none other than former national coach Jogi Löw as the new BVB coach. But would Löw, who is financially independent, really want to do that to himself?
Löw was in office at the DFB until summer 2021 and has been without a coaching position since then. The 64-year-old explained at the end of last year that he could imagine returning to the football business. “So far, I haven’t had a job that has absolutely and passionately grabbed me. If that happens, then I’m certainly ready to do something again,” Löw said on SWR.
But will that be the Herculean task of BVB?
Or will BVB once again rely on the oh-so-important stable smell. The loyal Borussia fans are probably horrified by this. But who would be more suitable than Kevin Großkreutz, who, as is well known, has black and yellow blood and would really put the pressure on BVB failures like Brandt, Nmecha, Sabitzer, Bensebaini, Adeyemi and all the rest. Tactically, however, he would probably have a few deficits.
But maybe a coach from the BVB understructure will move up to the professionals as a short-term Sahin successor? Such as BVB II coach Jan Zimmermann or U19 coach Mike Tullberg. It would at least be a quick and internal solution. If it were one of the two, and they could hold their own, this could also be a solution until the summer.
And then the cards could be reshuffled in general. Then VfB Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß would probably be a hot tip to be the next BVB coach to sign.
Until then, we can speculate wildly about who the BVB bosses will present as Sahin’s successor…
That’s why Sahin was dismissed by BVB
The year 2025 is a nightmare for Borussia Dortmund. Four games, four defeats. It started with a 3-2 home loss to Bayer Leverkusen, which could have been a 6-0 debacle if the Werkself hadn’t switched back.
After that, things got embarrassing: 2:4 at Holstein Kiel after trailing 3-0 at half-time. A minor improvement in performance followed, but they had no chance at all in the 2-0 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt. And most recently, there was a 2-1 defeat at FC Bologna in the Champions League.
Bologna had previously only picked up two points and scored one goal (!) in six CL games – against Dortmund, they scored two goals and picked up three points.
The arguments for Sahin’s dismissal have been on the table for weeks – only the BVB management don’t want to admit it yet.
The black-and-yellow disaster was already apparent in the first half of the season:
The first five away appearances this Bundesliga season are tantamount to a sporting declaration of bankruptcy: 1:5 at VfB Stuttgart, 1:2 at Union Berlin and at FC Augsburg and most recently 1:3 in Mainz. As of mid-November, BVB was the third-worst away team in the league (1x drawn, 4x lost / 4:12 goals).
The last time BVB did not win any of the first five away league games was 19 years ago, and the haul of just one point is the worst since 1989/90.
After ten Bundesliga matchdays, BVB’s record looked disastrous:
Only 50 percent of the games won (plus a draw and four defeats) and only one point after five away games, with the last four all lost. 18 goals conceded after ten league games was last seen in 2007/2008. The dream of the championship title had already been shattered in the first third of the season.
On top of that, the team was knocked out of the DFB Cup in the second round, meaning that what was probably their only real chance of winning a title was squandered at an early stage.
The fact that nothing improved during the first half of the season – or at best only in some cases (such as the 2-1 home win against RB Leipzig, for example) – proves that Nuri Sahin is not managing to get his fickle team to play consistently at a high level.
A clear game plan is not really recognizable under his leadership. The focus is neither on possession nor on consistent transition play. Yes, what does BVB actually stand for under Sahin?
Even after the first half of the season, there is no sign of a leadership structure following the departures of Mats Hummels, Marco Reus and Niclas Füllkrug. The newcomers such as Waldemar Anton and Pascal Groß were leaders at their former clubs, but they do not play regularly in Dortmund. And captain Emre Can has been more than controversial in terms of performance not only since this season.
In addition, games are too often “coached” poorly, such as the 5-2 defeat at Real Madrid in the Champions League or some Bundesliga away appearances.
But somehow the people in charge at BVB don’t seem to care about the sporting bankruptcy that this team, with its “fair-weather players” like Adeyemi, Brandt, Bensabaini, Nmecha and all the rest, delivers almost weekly – for them, there is only one guideline for sacking Nuri Sahin: if participating in the Champions League is in jeopardy, it’s going to be tough for the coach.
Currently, BVB is just in the top 10 (!) of the Bundesliga table: however, a Champions League place is currently only seven points away. “Only” is the surprising thing when you look at the last few weeks and months of the Borussians…
