Borussia Dortmund said Friday it had appointed former players Nuri Sahin and Sven Bender to join head coach Edin Terzic’s staff, following a lacklustre first half of the season.
Dortmund’s management was looking for “new impetus in the coaching staff”, after taking stock of recent results, the team’s sporting director Sebastian Kehl said in a statement.
Perennial title challenger Dortmund sits fifth in the table at the halfway mark in the campaign, 15 points behind league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Dortmund has underperformed after taking the Bundesliga race to the wire last season, losing out to bitter rivals Bayern Munich on the last day.
Sahin and Bender will take up their posts at the start of the new year on contracts that will run through June 2025, the team said.
Terzic’s current assistant Armin Reutershahn will also leave the coaching staff of his own accord.
Sahin leaves his role as head coach at Turkish first division side Antalyaspor to rejoin Dortmund, while Bender was working as co-trainer for the German under-17s until accepting the offer to return.
The pair won the Bundesliga title together at Dortmund in 2011 under then manager Jurgen Klopp.
“We are convinced that the two of them will make us stronger as a team in order to achieve our goals in the second half of the season,” Kehl said.
Terzic said the addition of the two first-team alumni was his “clear wish” and a long-term target for the club.
“I am extremely happy about the opportunity to have both of them by my side,” Terzic said in the statement.
The switch back to Dortmund was “not a simple decision”, Sahin said, but added “it feels good to come home”.
Dortmund’s next game is away to bottom side Darmstadt on January 13.
