Since the separation from Jürgen Klopp in 2015, BVB has been looking for a suitable successor for the popular Dortmund coach. Whether Tuchel, Favre or Rose – something always didn’t fit. But now there is hope. Aki Watzke has already compared Edin Terzic to Klopp. And that’s supposed to mean something!
Three years ago, Aki Watzke finally sat relaxed again next to Jürgen Klopp on stage and smiled happily. On this autumn evening in October 2019, the managing director of BVB presented his recently published book “Echte Liebe” at a literature festival together with the Liverpool FC coach. And if you hadn’t known for sure in these emotional moments that the two gentlemen up there on stage had been going their separate ways (professionally) for a few years, you would have had to pinch yourself to understand the situation. Because Aki Watzke made no secret of his still exuberant sympathy for Klopp that evening. On the contrary. Afterwards, Watzke had to publicly justify putting his current coach, Lucien Favre, in an unfavorable position with his soulful performance.
The joint event with Klopp was only part of the story. Much more important were the lines that the BVB managing director together with his author Michael Horeni had previously written in the “Echte Liebe” book – and which were nothing more than an emotional review of a great love story with a separation at the end, which is now known as “Error” was seen. Watzke: “Perhaps it would have been better if we had replaced the whole team – and not the coach. Because I knew we would never get a coach like that again, but good players would.” And he added: “The relationship I had with Jürgen for seven years at BVB has never existed before. And there will probably never be a relationship like that again.”
The hope that Watzke expresses in this meaningful sentence with this one, but still so essential word “probably”, has resonated with every new Borussia coach since the separation from Jürgen Klopp in 2015. Aki Watzke’s deep longing for these nostalgic moments, which he shared with his coach Jürgen Klopp, just won’t let go of the Sauerland native. And so the dismissals and separations of Tuchel, Bosz, Stöger, Favre and Rose were always just a matter of time for the in-the-know observers on site in Dortmund – because none of those named could compete with the current Liverpool coach. Until now. Until Aki Watzke discovered a worthy successor to Jürgen Klopp in Edin Terzic from Sauerland – and his passion for a Borussia coach flared up again.
And exactly this enthusiasm and dedication of Aki Watzke is reminiscent of the bumpy early days of the later master coach Jürgen Klopp in the spring and autumn of 2009. Because even if many have since suppressed this time due to the subsequent triumphs of BVB – at that time there were two situations that Jürgen Klopp’s team went six or seven games in a row without a win. In October 2009 – after the club’s worst start to the season in 21 years – Aki Watzke did not let the slightest doubt arise about his coach: “The trust in Klopp was and is boundless. There is not one per thousand insecurity”.
The words of BVB managing director Edin Terzic today are very reminiscent of what Aki Watzke said for and about his coach at the time: “We don’t need to badmouth Edin. He’s doing a great job. We are 1000 percent convinced of him .” And similar to 2009, when Watzke even offered Jürgen Klopp an early contract extension, he promises Terzic a “great” future with the runners-up: “Let the boy do it, he still has a long time ahead of him at BVB.”
At the end of a conversation this weekend in the BILD program “Die Lage der Liga”, Aki Watzke even made a comparison to his former favorite coach: “Jürgen Klopp has dedicated himself to the club for seven years. I see parallels there Edin, who is also totally focused on the club. I see that with Sebastian Kehl and it’s the same with me.” And again, the nostalgic hope for a renaissance of the beautiful past can be read from these lines. At that time, the protagonists of an emotional success story were Watzke, Klopp and Zorc. And already in 2011 Watzke said about this trio: “It’s a triad. And no matter what happens: We are friends for life, we talk about everything!” Can this unique time be repeated in a slightly different way? One does not know. But one can say with certainty: If not with Edin Terzic – then with whom?
