Robert Kovac

Robert Kovac joined Borussia Dortmund as assistant coach in February 2025, joining the club where he played from 2007 to 2009 and reached the final of the DFB-Pokal.

Playing career

Robert Kovac is not only following in the footsteps of his brother Niko, who is two and a half years older, as a coach, but they also shared a dressing room as players at several club, including at Leverkusen, where they became Bundesliga players, in Munich, where they won titles, and also in the Croatian senior side. Robert Kovac played a total of 564 matches for clubs such as 1. FC Nürnberg, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Dinamo Zagreb, where he finished his career in 2010. Between 12 August 2007 and 8 November 2008, he played 34 times for BVB. In the cup final in 2018, which they unfortunately lost to Bayern Munich 2-1 after extra time, the defender was out on the pitch for the full 120 minutes. He fell out of favour with Jürgen Klopp after a red card in the game at Hamburger SV (a 2-1 on 8 November 2008), and during the winter break, Kovac moved to Dinamo Zagreb, where he became captain and their defensive linchpin and lifted two trophies at the end of the season.

Coaching career

Since 2013, the Kovac brothers have formed a coaching team. “There’s no me without my brother,” says Niko about Robert: “He’s the most loyal friend you could have. That’s very, very important in our job. But anyone who thinks that Robby just tells me what I want to hear is totally wrong. Quite the opposite! He’s all about finding the right solution in a constructive way.” Robert has served under Niko since working for the Croatian national team – first for the U21s, then for the senior side. He also joined him at Eintracht Frankfurt (March 2016 to June 2024), Bayern Munich (July 2018 to November 2022), AS Monaco (July 2020 to January 2022), VfL Wolfsburg (July 2019 to March 2018) and now at Borussia Dortmund as an assistant. Robert has the following to say about his position: “I feel comfortable in this role, I like to work in the background. Niko has the last word. I’m different to my brother: Niko is a bit more serious, I’ve always been the more casual type. I think that fits in with the situation as a whole: he’s the head coach, I'm the assistant. And the assistant is always the link between the team and the head coach.” (Frankfurter Rundschau, January 2019)

Honours

As a player: World Club Cup winner (2001 with Bayern Munich), German league and cup winner (2003 and 2005 with Bayern Munich), Italian Champion (2006 with Juventus, although they were later stripped of the title), Croatian league winner (2009 and 2010 with Dinamo Zagreb), Croatian cup winner (2009 with Zagreb)
As assistant coach: German league winner (with Bayern Munich, 2019), German cup winner (with Eintracht Frankfurt, 2018, and Bayern Munich, 2019)