Niko Kovac

BVB

Niko Kovac has been head coach of Borussia Dortmund since 2 February 2025. He took over the team before Matchday 21 with the team languishing in 11th place and, after some early teething issues, led them to fourth place with an incredible run-in, bagging seven wins and a draw in the last eight games. In Europe, he reached the quarter-finals of both the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup with BVB. “Where I come from, you don’t get anything given to you. Everything my family and I have created was through hard work. I think I fit very well here in the Ruhr area. Here’s what I demand: discipline, order, passion, intensity and aggressiveness. Only those who put the work in will get the rewards. If you don’t give much, you don’t get much! I believe more is more," he says about himself and his work.

Playing career

Niko Kovac was born as the son of Croatian parents on 15 October 1971 in the West Berlin district of Wedding, graduated from school with a high school diploma and worked his way up from Rapide Wedding and Hertha Zehlendorf to join Hertha BSC, who gave him a contract in the second tier for the 1991/92 season. As a player, Kovac was not the product of modern performance centres, but the school of hard knocks. His career progressed was step by step. With the switch to Bayer Leverkusen, the defensive midfielder made the leap into the Bundesliga in the summer of 1996. For Leverkusen, Hamburger SV (1999 to 2001), Bayern Munich (2001 to 2003) and back in Berlin with Hertha BSC (2003 to 2006) he played 241 Bundesliga games, scoring 31 goals. With Bayern Munich, he won the World Club Cup in 2001 and the league and cup double in 2003. At his last club, FC Salzburg (2006 to 2009), he won the Austrian championship twice. From 1996 to 2009, Kovac played 83 times for Croatia, taking part in two World Cups and two European Champions.

Coaching career

Kovac started his coaching career directly after his playing career, acting as assistant coach, first of the second team, then of the first team in Salzburg. In January 2013, he took charge of the Croatian U21s, and was promoted to coach of the senior side only nine months later (until October 2015). From March 2016, he got his first role at a club, saving Eintracht Frankfurt from relegation in 2016 before leading SGE to the cup final in 2017 (where they would ultimately lose 2-1 against Borussia Dortmund). The very next year, he went one step further, beating Bayern Munich 3-1 in the final in 2018. Bayern snapped him up for the 2018/19 season as the successor to Jupp Heynckes. In the league, Munich ultimately beat Borussia Dortmund to the top spot, and in the cup there was a 3-0 final victory against Leipzig. His time in Munich lasted until November 2019. For the 2020/21 season, he took over as head coach of AS Monaco. In his first season, he guided Monaco to a strong third place in Ligue 1 and reached the French cup final. In the following season, his time in the Principality came to an end after 19 match days with Monaco in seventh – but the gap to second place was only four points. His third term as coach of a Bundesliga team was from July 2022 to March 2024 with VfL Wolfsburg.

Honours

As a player: World Club Cup winner (with Bayern Munich, 2001), German league and cup winner (with Bayern Munich, 2003), Austrian league winner (with Salzburg, 2007 and 2009)
As head coach: German league winner (with Bayern Munich, 2019), German cup winner (with Eintracht Frankfurt, 2018, and Bayern Munich, 2019)