BVB appoints club legend Łukasz Piszczek as assistant coach to Nuri Şahin

At Borussia Dortmund, changes continue to progress at a rapid pace. In recent weeks, there has been a high level of transfers and personnel changes. However, the appointment of Nuri Şahin as head coach was only the beginning of the club’s new beginning. Now the changes in his assistant coaching staff are also coming into effect. Borussia Dortmund initially confirmed the separation of assistant coaches Sven Bender and Sebastian Geppert. While Şahin had expressly stated that he would have liked to continue working with Bender, the collaboration was ended due to Bender’s personal circumstances and coaching ambitions.

To replace the departing assistant coaches, Dortmund have brought in three new faces, one of whom will be very familiar to Dortmund fans: Joao Tralhao, Ertugrul Arslan and club legend Łukasz Piszczek. The former Borussia Dortmund and Poland right-back had an extraordinary career in black and yellow, helping the club to two Bundesliga titles and three DFB Pokal titles on the pitch. He was also part of the team that reached the Champions League final in 2013 under Jürgen Klopp.

As a coach, Piszczek took on the role of player-coach for his youth club LKS Goczałkowice-Zdrój, where he most recently led the club to victory in the 2024 “puchar podokręgu Tychy” in Poland. He was even considered as an option for assistant coach of the Polish national team in late 2023, when it was speculated that Marek Papszun, who formerly coached Polish Ekstraklasa club Raków Częstochowa, would take on the role of head coach.

Looking at the entire coaching staff, including the signing of Piszczek, Dortmund have assembled a relatively inexperienced coaching staff; one of the problems many initially had with the appointment of Terzić. However, much of Dortmund’s good performances in the second half of the season were also due to the return of Şahin and Bender. This also goes hand in hand with the fact that the club has retained and brought back individuals who directly identify with the club, which they are now expected to lead to success. Sporting director Lars Ricken is delighted with this change and explains that he is confident in the club’s coaching decisions:

“We have managed to put together a trio with Joao, Ertugrul and Lukasz who bring a lot of skills and good ideas and will work well with Nuri. We are convinced that with their different strengths they will help us to have a successful season.”

– Lars Ricken

There are still many unknowns surrounding the team and how it will perform under the club’s new coaching staff. However, Nuri Sahin has spoken out and also expressed his confidence in Piszczek, explaining that he was his first choice after learning that Bender would be leaving the club:

“Now I’m looking forward to the new team and the daily exchange with three specialists who I really value. I’ve already worked with Joao and Ertugrul at Antalyaspor. And Lukasz was my first choice after it became clear that Sven would unfortunately be leaving BVB for the new season.”

– Nuri Sahin

Time will tell how well this new group of specialists will work together, but it is quite clear that a new era is dawning for Borussia Dortmund. It is an era that will at least be led by a coaching team that understands the club very well at its core and will hopefully look to bring back a style of play that is more in line with the club’s previous tendencies of playing attractive football. Under Şahin in particular, Dortmund are expected to look to take a more aggressive and forward-thinking approach to their football, which will be a welcome change that will bring the club back more to what we have known of it in terms of the style of play we have seen for around a decade.