Now it’s official: Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender have joined Borussia Dortmund’s coaching team and will now support Edin Terzic as assistant coaches. BVB is bringing back two former crowd favorites.
Sven Bender (l.) and Nuri Sahin (r.) return to BVB – and support head coach Edin Terzic (m.) as assistant coach. imago images (2)
After the disappointing last half-year, there were no personnel consequences at the top sporting level at Borussia Dortmund. Sebastian Kehl remains sports director, Edin Terzic remains head coach, according to a detailed analysis by those responsible around club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke and advisor Matthias Sammer shortly before Christmas.
However, there are still some innovations in the coaching bench. As the club announced on Friday, ex-BVB professionals Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender will support Terzic on the sidelines as assistant coaches from January 1, 2024. The duo will each receive a contract until the summer of 2025, and both have a common BVB past with Kehl. The previous assistant coach Armin Reutershahn, however, is leaving the club at his own request, as stated in a press release.
“We have intensively analyzed the course of the season so far. One of our shared findings was to want to give new impetus to the coaching staff,” sports director Kehl is quoted as saying in a club statement. “In Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender we are gaining two specialists and personalities who will enrich us with their different experiences and qualities, both in terms of content and character. We are convinced that the two of them will make us stronger as a team to achieve our goals still to be achieved in the second half of the season.”
Sahin: Successful start to his coaching career in Turkey
The club management is providing Terzic with two BVB icons who have gained their first coaching experience in recent years. Shortly before the turn of the year, the first rumors emerged in the Turkish media that Sahin would leave his position as head coach at Antalyaspor and return to BVB. He once played there as a youth, developed into a top performer among the professionals, won the German championship in 2011 and the DFB Cup in 2017.
Between crisis and success: The DFB in 2023
There was no peace at the German Football Association in 2023 either. Matthias Dersch and Carsten Schröter-Lorenz take stock of the DFB men, women and referees at the end of the year.
12/28/23 – 4:00 p.m. 14:43 minutes
From 2001 to 2007, the now 35-year-old took his first steps in the youth and professional ranks of the Black and Yellows, and later played for Borussia between 2008 and 2011 and from 2013 to 2018 in a total of 223 Bundesliga games (21 goals/40 assists) and 20 times in the Champions League (1/2). In the meantime, he was also under contract with Feyenoord, Real Madrid and Liverpool FC, followed by a move to Werder Bremen in 2018 and finally to Antalyaspor in 2020.
The 52-time Turkish international ended his active career there before making the seamless transition into coaching. After head coach Ersun Yanal was fired in October 2021, Sahin, until then the team’s captain, took over his position and immediately celebrated success. In his first season he led Antalyaspor to 7th place, the following year it was enough for 13th place and in the current season the club is once again in midfield when Sahin leaves (8th place, 24 points after 17 games). Antalyaspor expressed regret over the move, but was also “proud to have received an offer from a club like Borussia Dortmund.” Sahin’s contract, which runs until 2026, has been terminated.
If BVB asks, I can’t say ‘no’.
“It was not an easy decision to give up the position as Head of Football at Antalyaspor after more than two years, as we have built something special. I would like to thank everyone involved from the bottom of my heart, especially my players,” says Sahin, who said: “an incredibly intense, instructive and emotional time”. “If BVB asks, I can’t say ‘no’. As a coaching team, we will try together to get the team back on the road to success. It feels very nice to come home!”
Bender returns from the DFB to BVB
Bender was also an important part of BVB’s successes at the beginning of the last decade. The defensive midfielder was part of the championship teams in 2011 and 2012, when the double of the championship and the DFB Cup was won. He also lifted the trophy with BVB in 2017, appearing a total of 158 times for BVB in the league and 27 times in the Champions League.
After moving to Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the summer of 2017, he played in the Bundesliga for another four years before moving to TSV Brannenburg in the district league. The seven-time national player has been employed by the DFB since June 2022 and worked as an assistant coach for the U-17 juniors. The 34-year-old emphasized that he had been in contact with Terzic for “some time” and knew “what makes him tick as a coach”.
“It was my clear wish to win Nuri and Sven as assistant coaches for us. We have tried several times in the past to make this wish a reality. Now the possibility existed – and we implemented it,” explained Terzic Decision. “Nuri and Sven will enrich us with their experience and knowledge, while at the same time they can grow with us as still very young coaches. I am extremely happy about the opportunity to have both of them at my side.”
BVB has had a turbulent half-year, with Terzic’s team only collecting seven wins, six draws and three defeats from the first 16 games. As a result, Dortmund slipped to fifth place in the Bundesliga, six points behind the Champions League places. Accordingly, Terzic has recently been criticized – and has to deliver in the new year. After the training camp in Marbella from January 3rd to 9th, the Bundesliga continues with away games in Darmstadt (January 13th) and Cologne (January 20th) as well as at home against Bochum (January 28th) and away in Heidenheim ( February 2nd).
2023-12-29 12:40:10
#Nuri #Sahin #Sven #Bender #assistant #coaches #BVB
