History of Borussia Dortmund head coaches in the Bundesliga era
Only Bayern Munich have won more Bundesliga titles than Borussia Dortmund, while they are one of just three German teams to lift the coveted UEFA Champions League/European Cup. As such, they have been coached by some of the best in the business, from Jürgen Klopp and Ottmar Hitzfeld through to Thomas Tuchel and now Niko Kovač.
Here, we take you through every man to lead Dortmund from the dugout in the Bundesliga era since 1963...
Stats correct as of 19 November 2025
Hermann Eppenhoff
Tenure: 1 July 1961 – 30 June 1965
Record: 151 games (W80, D23, L48)
Trophies: 2 (German Championship, DFB Cup)
One of just seven men to take charge of at least 100 games for Dortmund in the Bundesliga era, Eppenhoff was also the first, leading the club out for their maiden match in the division on the competition’s opening matchday in August 1963.
He got his hands on the final German championship before the new league was introduced, and won the DFB Cup in 1965, although by that point he had already been informed he would not be coaching the team into 1965/66.
Willi Multhaup
Tenure: 1 July 1965 – 30 June 1966
Record: 44 games (W26, D10, L8)
Trophies: 1 (European Cup Winners' Cup)
Not only is Multhaup the first man to win a European trophy with Dortmund, but also with any German club, as he and his players edged out Liverpool in the 1966 Cup Winners' Cup final in Glasgow.
They were not able to move on to bigger and better things, though, as Multhaup was poached by inaugural Bundesliga winners Cologne in their search for more titles. He didn’t quite manage that, but did lift the DFB Cup in 1968 in his final game as a coach.
Heinz Murach
Tenure: 1 July 1966 – 10 April 1968
Record: 69 games (W27, D18, L24)
Trophies: 0
Joining the then European Cup Winners’ Cup winners, Murach was under pressure to deliver more silverware. Dortmund were among the favourites to win the 1966/67 Bundesliga, and although they ultimately finished third, there was a feeling that more was possible. BVB were not in the Meisterschale conversation the following campaign, and, with an exit already announced for the end of the season, Murach left in April after a poor run.
Oswald Pfau
Tenure: 18 April 1968 – 16 December 1968
Record: 23 games (W9, D4, L11)
Trophies: 0
With Dortmund in serious danger of relegation, Pfau was hired in April 1968 and reached his objective with a 14th-place finish. Borussia were in a relatively comfortable position by the winter break of 1968/69, but their head coach was forced to depart due to illness.
Tragically, he did not live to see the end of the season, suffering a fatal heart attack in January 1969.
Helmut Schneider
Tenure: 17 December 1968 – 17 March 1969; 1 July 1955 – 30 June 1957
Record: 86 games (W59, D15, L21)
Trophies: 2 (2x German Championships)
Schneider holds a special place in Dortmund history as the first man to win a national title with the club, doing so in back-to-back years in 1956 and 1957. Eleven years had passed when he was next asked to step into the breach in 1968. Unfortunately, he was unable to replicate his previous achievements, losing five consecutive matches to end his reign. He would never coach again.
Hermann Lindemann
Tenure: 21 March 1969 – 15 May 1970
Record: 44 games (W18, D11, L15)
Trophies: 0
Lindemann's sole Bundesliga stint came at Dortmund, and it was relatively successful. Brought in to keep Borussia in the first division, he did just that in 1968/69, before enabling a fifth-place finish the following season. Dortmund, though, had already decided on a change during the campaign, meaning Lindemann moved on to Alemmania Aachen, the last stop of his career in the dugout.
Helmut Bracht
Tenure: 16 May 1970 – 30 June 1970
Record: 6 games (W3, D0, L3)
Trophies: 0
Despite being in the hot seat for six games, none of them came in the Bundesliga as Bracht was in charge for the 1970 Intertoto Cup.
Dortmund won three and lost three of their six fixtures, finishing second behind Slovan Bratislava. In the end, his coaching spell at the club was a footnote after his nine-year playing career, during which he scored in Dortmund’s first-ever European Cup game against Spora Luxemburg in 1956.
Horst Witzler
Tenure: 1 July 1970 – 21 December 1971
Record: 62 games (W15, D16, L31)
Trophies: 0
Witzler was given his first taste of the Bundesliga when he was signed in July 1970. A 13th-place finish in his first season was deemed acceptable, but he only lasted until the following winter break, leaving shortly after a chastening 11-1 loss to Bayern. That proved to be his first and last time in the German top flight; afterwards, he coached in the lower divisions as well as in Belgium.
Herbert Burdenski
Tenure: 3 January 1972 – 28 February 1973
Record: 47 games (W17, D14, L16)
Trophies: 0
Burdenski has the ignominy of being the only Dortmund head coach to be relegated in the Bundesliga era.
The side were already 15th when he took over in January 1972, but 11 defeats during the second half of the season meant demotion. He was initially trusted with masterminding an immediate return, yet left in February 1973 with that looking increasingly unlikely.
Detlev Brüggemann
Tenure: 1 March 1973 – 30 April 1973
Record: 8 games (W3, D1, L4)
Trophies: 0
Part of the youth coaching set-up, Brüggemann was promoted to first-team head coach in March 1973. He didn’t even make it to the end of the campaign, with a 1-1 draw against Arminia Bielefeld proving to be the final straw.
Max Michallek
Tenure: 30 April 1973 – 30 June 1973
Record: 2 games (W1, L1)
Trophies: 0
Another man with a long career at Dortmund as a player, albeit before the Bundesliga era, Michallek’s two-game reign consisted of the ridiculous and the sublime. His first was a 4-0 loss to Erkenschwick in the second tier Regionalliga West, before beating Preußen Münster 9-0 to go out on a high as he left the club altogether at the end of the season.
János Bédl
Tenure: 1 July 1973 – 14 February 1974
Record: 27 games (W14, D5, L8)
Trophies: 0
During his time at Dortmund, Hungarian Bédl 14 of his 27 matches, but results were still below expectations. At the time, he was the first non-German to coach the team in the Bundesliga era, and ultimately led teams in five different countries during his time in the dugout.
Dieter Kurrat
Tenure: 15 February 1974 – 30 June 1974
Record: 11 games (W3, D3, L5)
Trophies: 0
Better known by his nickname ‘Hoppy’, Kurrat often displayed his fighting spirit during his 14 years as a player at Dortmund – he needed to be as, at just 5’3”, he is one of the shortest players in Bundesliga history.
He stepped into coaching while he was still active on the pitch, taking over for the final few games of the 1973/74 term. It is fair to say he did not deal well with the dual responsibility, winning just three matches during an unceremonious spell.
Otto Knefler
Tenure: 1 July 1974 – 1 February 1976
Record: 70 games (W34, D20, L16)
Trophies: 0
Knefler was tasked with returning Dortmund to the Bundesliga from the newly formed Bundesliga 2 after two years in the Regionalliga West, then the second division of Germany’s footballing pyramid. His first season ended with a sixth-place finish and a DFB Cup semi-final loss to Duisburg, but he was unable to build on and was eventually dismissed due to disagreements with the squad.
Horst Buhtz
Tenure: 1 February 1976 – 14 June 1976
Record: 17 games (W11, D2, L4)
Trophies: 0
Dortmund were still struggling in their attempts to earn promotion back to the promised land when Buhtz was appointed. After his arrival, BVB won 11 of their remaining 17 regular-season games to earn a place in the relegation play-off.
Interestingly, Buhtz did not take charge of the play-off games, as they were against Nuremberg, who he had already agreed to join for the following season. Dortmund won 4-2 aggregate, meaning Buhtz, who had no fewer than 11 head coaching roles throughout his career, was back where he started.
Otto Rehhagel
Tenure: 15 June 1976 – 30 April 1978
Record: 75 games (W30, D16, L29)
Trophies: 0
Rehhagel would go on to accomplish great things domestically with Bremen and internationally with Greece, but before all that, he spent two years at Dortmund. They had just returned to the Bundesliga, and Rehhagel oversaw a respectable eighth-place finish in 1976/77. Inconsistency was an issue, though, and a 12-0 loss to Gladbach - their record defeat - on the final day of the 1977/78 campaign made his position untenable.
Carl-Heinz Rühl
Tenure: 1 July 1978 – 29 April 1979
Record: 34 games (W11, D10, L13)
Trophies: 0
The peak of Rühl’s reign actually came in his very first fixture, as Dortmund recorded their all-time biggest win in a 14-1 mauling of BSV Schwenningen. A win over Bayern in his opening Bundesliga game followed, and four wins in the first six matches across all competitions suggested the future was bright.
Subsequently, though, there were ups and downs, and after four defeats in five games, Rühl was shown the door. He had later spells with 1860 Munich and Osnabrück before moving upstairs in the mid-1980s.
Rolf Bock
Tenure: 11 May 1981 - 30 June 1981
Record: 4 games (W1, D2, L1)
Trophies: 0
After time with Dortmund II as an assistant, Bock stepped into the limelight towards the end of 1980/81. He spent just 50 days there, with a 4-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt the highlight. His only other stint as a head coach was 10 months with Rot-Weiß Essen two years later, which also produced little worth writing home about.
Branko Zebec
Tenure: 1 July 1981 – 30 June 1982
Record: 37 games (W20, D5, L12)
Trophies: 0
Given the amount of time afforded to those before and after him, Zebec did well to last one whole season. It was a good campaign, too, as Dortmund finished sixth, their best Bundesliga position in 12 years.
However, the Yugoslav’s alcohol problems – he was given an 18-month driving ban for crashing his car while under the influence – curtailed his employment. Much like Feldkamp, his time elsewhere is far more noteworthy, as he led Bayern to their first-ever Bundesliga title in 1969.
Karl-Heinz Feldkamp
Tenure: 1 July 1982 – 5 April 1983
Record: 33 games (W19, D5, L9)
Trophies: 0
Feldkamp sits in the top 20 of Bundesliga head coaches in terms of most games coached. However, while he is fondly remembered at Kaiserslautern thanks to winning the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup, his time at Dortmund never really took off.
BVB’s record Bundesliga win, an 11-1 hammering of Arminia Bielefeld, came under his tutelage, but three straight defeats towards the end of the 1982/83 season, including a 5-0 humbling by Fortuna Cologne in the semi-finals of the DFB Cup, led to his demise.
Ulrich Maslo
Tenure: 1 July 1983 – 23 October 1983; 30 April 1979 – 30 June 1979
Record: 17 games (W5, D4, L8)
Trophies: 0
Before making a name for himself in the Middle East, Maslo had two brief stints at the Dortmund helm. During his first term, he lost just one of his five games towards the end of the 1978/79 term, which perhaps earned him a second stab at the job four years later. After failing to win any of his opening five matches at the beginning of 1983/84, the writing was already on the wall, and he left soon after.
Hans-Dieter Tippenhauer
Tenure: 1 November 1983 – 15 November 1983
Record: 2 games (D1, L1)
Trophies: 0
Tippenhauer, who enjoyed success in the dug-out with Fortuna Düsseldorf in the late 1970s, was team manager by the time he was required to return to his former role temporarily towards the end of 1983 to replace Maslo. He picked up one point from his two games in charge in what would prove to be his final foray into coaching.
Horst Franz
Tenure: 16 November 1983 – 30 June 1984
Record: 20 games (W8, D5, L7)
Trophies: 0
Franz was busy in the Ruhr area, with spells at Schalke and Rot-Weiß Essen also on his CV. His stint at Dortmund lasted fewer than 12 months, but he achieved his goal by keeping BVB away from the drop. He couldn’t repeat the trick in Gelsenkirchen, though, which will surely have gone down well with the Dortmund faithful.
Timo Konietzka
Tenure: 1 July 1984 – 24 October 1984
Record: 11 games (W3, D1, L7)
Trophies: 0
Konietzka holds a special place in German football history, scoring the Bundesliga’s first goal for Dortmund against Werder Bremen in 1963. His coaching career, at least at BVB, was not quite as memorable, as he lasted just 11 games before being fired. His seven-year stint at Zurich, where he won the Swiss Championship three times, was far more successful.
Watch: A tribute to Konietzka
Erich Ribbeck
Tenure: 28 October 1984 – 30 June 1985
Record: 25 games (W10, D4, L11)
Trophies: 0
Such was the rate that Dortmund went through coaches at the start of the 1980s, Ribbeck’s spell of 25 games was more than any of his eight immediate predecessors could muster.
A 3-2 DFB Cup loss to Schalke in his first match was perhaps a sign of things to come, and while he did steer Dortmund away from the drop zone to finish in a comparatively comfortable 14th place, it was not enough to see his stay prolonged. There was to be more success at Bayer Leverkusen, his next club, where he won the UEFA Cup, the first trophy in their history.
Pál Csernai
Tenure: 1 July 1985 – 20 April 1986
Record: 37 games (W13, D7, L17)
Trophies: 0
Dortmund were the eighth stop for Csernai during a journey that saw him take on 13 head coaching roles across eight different countries. His time with BVB was not amongst the most memorable, as he failed to make it through one whole season, ultimately being replaced with a drop down to the second tier a real possibility.
Reinhard Saftig
Tenure: 21 April 1986 – 30 June 1988; 25 October 1984 – 27 October 1984
Record: 87 games (W34, D24, L29)
Trophies: 0
Saftig spent several years as an assistant at Dortmund before being appointed to the top job in 1986. He had already taken charge of one game by that point as an interim following Csernai’s departure, and he kept Dortmund amongst the elite via the relegation play-off and an 8-0 replay win over Fortuna Cologne in 1986.
Qualification for the UEFA Cup came in 1986/87, but Dortmund languished in 13th place the season after. Nevertheless, a dispute over the team captain between him and the board led to his departure during the 1988/89 pre-season training camp.
Horst Köppel
Tenure: 1 July 1988 – 30 June 1991
Record: 122 games (W52, D39, L31)
Trophies: 2 (DFB Cup, Supercup)
In possession of a bursting trophy cabinet thanks to his time with Gladbach as a player, Köppel’s only silverware as a coach came at Dortmund as they won the 1988/89 DFB Cup and the Supercup. A fourth-place finish followed that in 1989/90, and they were on their way to another solid term the year after.
Nevertheless, a 7-0 hammering at the hands of VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 18 put paid to any such hopes as they failed to win any of their next 13 fixtures. He was therefore out of the door come the end of the term, which was perhaps a blessing given the next man in.
Ottmar Hitzfeld
Tenure: 1 July 1991 – 30 June 1997
Record: 273 games (W149, D60, L64)
Trophies: 5 (2x Bundesliga, 2x Supercup, Champions League)
Many coaches, both before and since, have tried to emulate Hitzfeld’s success. He is arguably the greatest boss in the club’s history, winning their first two Bundesliga titles in successive seasons between 1994 and 1996, while also securing two Supercups.
He almost clinched the UEFA Cup in 1993, losing to Juventus in the final, but his crowning glory and ultimately revenge came in the Champions League as Dortmund defeated the Italian giants in the 1996/97 showpiece in Munich.
After turning down Real Madrid, he moved upstairs to become sporting director before returning to the dugout in 1998 to scale the heights of German, European and World football with Bayern.
Nevio Scala
Tenure: 1 July 1997 – 30 June 1998
Record: 52 games (W21, D13, L18)
Trophies: 1 (Intercontinental Cup)
How do you follow a Champions League final triumph? Scala was the man to find out, and while he did win the Intercontinental Cup, the first and only time BVB have won it, he could only guide the team to a 10th-place Bundesliga finish. They reached the semi-finals as they attempted to defend their European title, but lost to eventual winners Real Madrid in Scala's sole season at the helm.
Michael Skibbe
Tenure: 1 July 1998 – 4 February 2000
Record: 68 games (W30, D19, L19)
Trophies: 0
Thanks to a trio of U19 Bundesliga title wins, Skibbe was appointed to the senior job in July 1998, becoming the youngest head coach in German top-flight history at the time, aged 32. Dortmund finished fourth under his tutelage in 1998/99, but the following season did not go as well, and he returned to his previous position with the academy in February 2000. Later roles include head coach at Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bernd Krauss
Tenure: 6 February 2000 – 13 April 2000
Record: 13 games (W0, D5, L8)
Trophies: 0
Few would have predicted that Krauss’ time at Dortmund would be so poor, having previously won the DFB Cup with Gladbach. Remarkably, he failed to win any of his first 13 games before being let go after just eight weeks. His last role was in 2012 at Étoile Sportive du Sahel in Tunisia.
Udo Lattek
Tenure: 14 April 2000 – 30 June 2000; 1 July 1979 – 10 May 1981
Record: 78 games (W35, D17, L26)
Trophies: 0
No coach has won more Bundesliga titles than Lattek’s eight, but, unfortunately for Dortmund, all of those came during spells with Bayern and Gladbach.
His time with BVB was solid, if unspectacular, as he led the club to sixth place in 1979/80 before leaving towards the end of the next season, with a similar position being occupied. He had been asked to stay on into 1980/81, but his son’s death led him to decide to move abroad.
He had not managed in seven years when he took the hot seat for a second time in April 2000. With Matthias Sammer as his assistant, the duo steered Dortmund to Bundesliga safety in what proved to be his final career role.
Matthias Sammer
Tenure: 1 July 2000 – 30 June 2004
Record: 185 games (W91, D45, L49)
Trophies: 1 (Bundesliga)
Not only is Sammer one of the best players ever to wear a Dortmund shirt, but he was also a skilled coach. The club had fallen since their mid-90s heyday, and Sammer was tasked with returning them to former glories. And, following a third-place finish in his opening season, he and his team ended the 2001/02 season with Bundesliga winners' medals around their necks.
They were within touching distance of European silverware, too, as they lost 3-2 to Feyenoord in the UEFA Cup final. That was the peak of his four-year tenure, but he left in 2004, still held in high esteem.
His only other coaching job was at Stuttgart; otherwise, he has taken on backroom, boardroom, and advisory positions with the Germany national team, as well as Bayern and Dortmund.
Watch: Matthias Sammer - world-class sweeper
Bert van Marwijk
Tenure: 1 July 2004 – 18 December 2006
Record: 95 games (W35, D32, L28)
Trophies: 0
Van Marwijk was the pick to replace club legend Sammer, and he struggled for consistency during his time in charge. A pair of seventh-place finishes fell below expectations, and as he failed to build momentum during his third season, it was announced that he would leave at the end of the 2006/07 term.
In the end, two wins in 11 saw him exit before 2006 was out. Since then, he has primarily coached internationally, with his greatest achievement being a World Cup final appearance in charge of the Netherlands.
Jürgen Röber
Tenure: 19 December 2006 – 12 March 2007
Record: 8 games (W2, D0, L6)
Trophies: 0
Röber had 15 years of coaching experience behind him when he was given the Dortmund job. His time there was short, and hardly sweet, lasting just six games.
His first match in charge, a 3-2 win over Bayern, proved to be a false dawn, as the team scored just five goals in the remaining seven games he oversaw. Few were surprised when a 2-0 defeat to Bochum led to his dismissal.
Thomas Doll
Tenure: 13 March 2007 – 30 June 2008
Record: 49 games (W20, D11, L18)
Trophies: 0
There was very little to write home about from Doll’s 15 months in charge. Brought in towards the end of 2006/07, four wins in five at the end of the term, all without conceding, suggested good times were on the horizon.
A 3-1 loss to Duisburg on the opening day of the following term dampened the mood, and things never really got better as Dortmund finished 13th on 40 points, their joint-lowest total this century. Needless to say, Doll did not hold on to his job and went on to coach in Hungary, Turkey, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia alongside an underwhelming stint at Hannover.
Jürgen Klopp
Tenure: 1 July 2008 – 30 June 2015
Record: 319 games (W181, D65, L73)
Trophies: 5 (2x Bundesliga, DFB Cup, 2x Supercup)
Dortmund were going through a challenging time on and off the pitch when Klopp joined in 2008, having taken Mainz to the Bundesliga for the first time in their history. When he left in 2015, the club were in a significantly better position, and Klopp’s results, as well as endearing character, earned him legendary status.
After two seasons of stabilisation, he turned BVB into a force to be reckoned with as they cantered to successive Bundesliga titles, the second of which was accompanied by a DFB Cup triumph.
No Dortmund manager has won more trophies, and only an agonising Champions League final loss to Bayern prevented him from completing the set. After a difficult 2014/15 term, Klopp and the club chose to end their working relationship, and he went on to write more history at Liverpool.
Watch: Jürgen Klopp - the Borussia Dortmund years
Thomas Tuchel
Tenure: 1 July 2015 – 30 June 2017
Record: 107 games (W69, D20, L18)
Trophies: 1 (DFB Cup)
Replicating Klopp’s heights was always going to be a tough ask, but Tuchel gave it a good go. Only in the 2011/22 campaign (81 points), when Dortmund won the title, have they amassed more than the 78 points they won in Tuchel’s first campaign, but Pep Guardiola’s Bayern juggernaut proved too difficult to overcome.
There was a drop-off the following season as Dortmund finished third, but lifting the DFB Cup made up for that. Tuchel and the Dortmund hierarchy did not always see eye-to-eye, with CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke calling him a “difficult person”, and the two parted ways after two seasons.
Since then, Tuchel has become a Champions League winner with Chelsea, a Bundesliga winner with Bayern, and has now been tasked with winning the World Cup in charge of England.
Watch: Thomas Tuchel's Bundesliga highlights
Peter Bosz
Tenure: 1 July 2017 – 9 December 2017
Record: 24 games (W8, D6, L10)
Trophies: 0
Having taken Ajax to the Europa League final in 2016/17, Bosz was selected to replace Tuchel. Those were big shoes to fill, and while there were some notable victories during his time at Dortmund, a run of just one win in 13 games eventually ended his tenure in the Ruhr.
He is mainly remembered as the man who contrived to give away a 4-0 lead to Schalke in the unforgettable 4-4 draw. Since then, Bosz has been at the helm of Leverkusen and Lyon before winning back-to-back Eredivisie titles at PSV Eindhoven.
Watch: Borussia Dortmund 4-4 Schalke - highlights
Peter Stöger
Tenure: 10 December 2017 – 30 June 2018
Record: 24 games (W10, D8, L6)
Trophies: 0
Four successful years for Stöger at Cologne attracted the attention of Dortmund, who hired the Austrian just a week after he was let go by the Billy Goats.
With the club in eighth place upon his arrival, Stöger steadied the ship and ultimately secured a European spot, helping the development of players like Manuel Akanji and Jadon Sancho. A 6-0 defeat at the hands of Bayern stung, though, and he left at the end of the 2017/18 term, later managing Austria Vienna, Ferencváros and Rapid Vienna.
Lucien Favre
Tenure: 1 July 2018 – 13 December 2020
Record: 110 games (W68, D17, L25)
Trophies: 1 (Supercup)
Favre was so close, yet so far from silverware at Dortmund. The Swiss, who had previously led Hertha Berlin and Gladbach in Germany, coached BVB to two runners-up positions during his two full years in charge, the first of which went down to the final day after Dortmund had previously held a nine-point lead at the top.
Favre became the first head coach to go unbeaten across his first 15 Bundesliga games at the club but, after a poor run of form, he left his post in 2020.
Marco Rose
Tenure: 1 July 2021 – 20 May 2022
Record: 46 games (W26, D4, L15)
Trophies: 0
After taking Mönchengladbach to the knockout stages of the Champions League, Rose’s stock was high in German football, convincing Dortmund to make him their next head coach. His solitary season at the club was far from disastrous, finishing second behind Bayern.
Still, failure to progress from their Champions League group contributed to the pair parting ways. Rose subsequently joined RB Leipzig, where he won the 2022/23 DFB Cup and the 2023 Supercup in two-and-a-half years.
Edin Terzić
Tenure: 1 July 2022 – 30 June 2024; 13 December 2020 – 30 June 2021
Record: 128 games (W75, D24, D29)
Trophies: 1 (DFB Cup)
Few Dortmund coaches can claim to have as strong a connection with the club as Terzić, who has been a supporter since childhood and had two spells as part of the backroom staff before stepping into the head coach role, initially on an interim basis.
Two wins from his first three matches saw him given the job until the end of the 2020/21 season, and that decision proved to be a stroke of genius as BVB won their last eight games of the season to qualify for the Champions League and win the DFB Cup.
His second stint was one of near misses – Dortmund missed out on the 2022/23 Bundesliga title on the final day and lost the 2024 Champions League final. Terzić’s tears following the former underlined his love for the club, and he stepped down within two weeks of the latter. He has not taken another role in the dugout since.
Watch: Terzić emotional after near Bundesliga title miss
Nuri Şahin
Tenure: 1 July 2024 – 22 January 2025
Record: 27 games (W12, D4, L11)
Trophies: 0
Şahin’s affiliation with Dortmund as a player – he is the club’s second-youngest player ever, while he also won the Meisterschale in 2010/11 – meant his arrival first as assistant to Edin Terzić and then his successor as head coach was generally met with positivity. However, after a five-game unbeaten run to start his reign, things soon turned sour.
Dortmund suffered heavy defeats against VfB Stuttgart and Real Madrid before embarking on a spell of one win in nine. The final straw was a 2-1 Champions League loss to Bologna, a fourth consecutive defeat and one that led to the former Turkey international being relieved of his duties.
Mike Tullberg
Tenure: 22 January 2025 – 2 February 2025
Record: 3 games (W2, D1, L0)
Trophies: 0
Having already spent six years as head coach of the second team and the U19s, Tullberg was appointed as interim coach upon Şahin’s exit. He certainly did his reputation no harm, going unbeaten across his three games in charge. After another brief stint in charge of Dortmund II, he took his first permanent head coaching role at Midtjylland in his native Denmark, producing impressive results both domestically and in Europe.
Niko Kovač
Tenure: 2 February 2025 – present
Record: 41 games (W25, D8, L8)
Trophies: 0
Kovač was already a Bundesliga and two-time DFB Cup winner as a head coach by the time he arrived at Dortmund, having also won both trophies as a player with Bayern. And, while he has not yet won any silverware at Signal Iduna Park, he salvaged their 2024/25 campaign, taking them from 11th in the table to a top-four finish. In the 2025/26 campaign, they have become more consistent and can slowly start to think about adding to their trophy cabinet.
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