Bundesliga
Sahin outlines game idea: BVB football should fit the city
Nuri Sahin is the new coach of Borussia Dortmund. Photo
© Harry Langer/dpa
In a club interview, Nuri Sahin talks about his footballing ideas for Borussia. The new Dortmund coach also thanks his predecessor.
“Borussia Dortmund and the city of Dortmund stand for something. And I want people to recognize that every weekend when we are in our stadium, that Borussia Dortmund plays football,” explained the 35-year-old.
For the successor to the resigned Edin Terzic, this means: “We want to be active, we want to have the ball, we want to decide in which direction the game goes,” said Sahin, who played more than 200 games for BVB as a player. He was also under contract with Real Madrid, Liverpool FC, Werder Bremen and Antalyaspor, and gained his first coaching experience in the professional sector at the Turkish first division club from 2021 to 2023.
However, Sahin will not rely on full-on offensive and pure possession football. A good balance is important, he explained: “We need all facets of the game. The modern game simply means that you have to cover everything.” His team also has to defend.
Sahin is “grateful for life” to Terzic
Sahin, who signed a head coach contract with Dortmund until June 30, 2027, only returned to BVB as an assistant in January. He owes his previous boss “a lot,” Sahin said of Terzic: “Edin and I were a team, we always talked to each other, I was given a lot of freedom in the last six months.”
Thanks to Terzic, he was able to get to know BVB again: “I got all the insights. Edin really opened his doors to me – all his data, his analyses, his training: I will be grateful to him for that for the rest of my life.”
On Thursday, Terzic asked Dortmund officials to immediately terminate his contract, which runs until 2025. Although he had stormed into the Champions League final with his beloved club, they only finished fifth in the league. Sahin is now expected to make more of the opportunities the club has to offer.