Surprise at BVB: Lars Ricken becomes the new boss of Borussia Dortmund

As of: 11:53 a.m | Reading time: 2 minutes

borussia Dortmund is reorganizing its personnel. And quite surprisingly: Sports director Sebastian Kehl will not, as long expected, be promoted to sports director and thus successor to Hans-Joachim Watzke. As the club announced in an ad hoc announcement on Monday, another long-time ex-professional, Lars Ricken, is moving into the club’s management.

The 1997 Champions League hero, who shot the club to the premier class title and also celebrated three championships with BVB, has been working as a youth coordinator at the club since 2014. He is considered ambitious but reserved. For support, the 47-year-old, like Watzke before him, is likely to rely on the services of chief advisor Matthias Sammer. Ricken’s new contract runs until June 30, 2027.

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For a long time, Kehl was considered the logical successor to Watzke, who wants to gradually hand over sporting responsibility from this summer and step down from management completely at the end of 2025 in order to move to the office of president. In recent weeks, however, the sports director has come under increasing criticism internally.

“I am very pleased that Lars Ricken is taking over the position of managing director for the sports area,” said Watzke. “I am sure that Borussia Dortmund, with its managing directors Thomas Treß, Carsten Cramer and Lars Ricken, will continue to have a first-class professional position in the future.” Treß and Cramer extended their contracts until June 30, 2027.

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Kehl wants to continue

According to BILD, Kehl, whose contract is still valid for one year, had already been informed about his non-promotion for some time. According to the report, he will not resign, although he will also lose influence in his position. The former squad planner Sven Mislintat (most recently Ajax Amsterdam) is to be installed as technical director under Kehl in the near future.

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With Thomas Broich from Hertha BSC, Dortmund Borussia recently signed a well-known ex-professional for the youngsters, who is expected to take over from Ricken.