Two coaching giants, Ottmar Hitzfeld and Jürgen Klopp, led Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final. Edin Terzić became the third to achieve this feat last night. Both mentioned coaches launched illustrious coaching careers in Dortmund. Hitzfeld brought the Millionaires their only European title in club history in 1997 and later repeated this feat in Munich. Klopp won almost everything there was to win in Liverpool…Terzić’s final is a bigger surprise than Hitzfeld’s or Klopp’s. The two of them already had two Bundesliga titles, each with the black and yellows, assembling strong teams for years, and Borussia was then considered one of the title favourites. Hitzfeld’s championship team had an easy group where they eliminated Lodz and Steaua, then a decent Osasuna in the quarterfinals and a strong Manchester United in the semifinals before Karl-Heinz Riedle sealed Juventus’ fate in the final. Klopp’s team had a tough group with Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Ajax, then Shakhtar Donetsk in the round of 16, a thrilling two-legged match with the likeable Malaga in the quarterfinals, and Mourinho’s formidable Real Madrid before the final against Bayern Munich.MARCO REUS leads Borussia Dortmund fans in song after Champions League victory vs. PSG. Incredible, joy-soaked pictures. 📢 Reus is to leave his hometown club after 12 years at the end of this season. His last game will be the UCL final. 💛pic.twitter.com/xVfmhuuZui— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) May 8, 2024 Terzić’s Borussia navigated probably the toughest group in Champions League history with Paris Saint-Germain, Milan, and Newcastle, where nothing was certain until the last minutes. They were fortunate in the draw to get PSV, although it turns out this is one of the best generations in the club’s history from Eindhoven. Then, at the Westfalenstadion, they demolished Atletico Madrid and twice defeated the favoured PSG in the semifinals. The result of Terzić’s team exceeds all expectations. Especially since Borussia is only in fifth place in the Bundesliga and has never been in contention for the title this season. But scepticism and mistrust have loomed heavily over Edin Terzić’s coaching career. Even before the start of this season…UCL: A miracle in Paris! PSG are out after another defeat from BorussiaWhen at the end of May last year, in the final round at the packed Westfalenstadion, they lost the title against Mainz (2-2), Terzić’s career seemed doomed to failure. He cried in front of the Yellow Wall, where he spent his youth days and cheered on that Klopp generation as a fan. He celebrated the title in 2011 as an ordinary, local 30-year-old, unaware that a decade later, he would be in Klopp’s place. But he didn’t bring the same joy to the black-yellow army as the charismatic blonde guy from Stuttgart. It’s precisely Klopp’s shadow that haunted all subsequent Borussia coaches, and Terzić seemed like just another one in the line. Thomas Tuchel, Peter Bosz, Peter Stöger, Lucien Favre… None of them met the standards set during Klopp’s era. And they were all carefully chosen solutions. Terzić is the only one who jumped in accidentally.This is how the fans embraced Edin Terzic after Dortmund failed to win the Bundesliga on the final match of last season.This is what support is and tonight was their reward. 🤝💛🖤⏳ pic.twitter.com/LUnKLDcZdH— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) May 7, 2024 The son of “blue-collar” parents from former Yugoslavia grew up just half an hour away from the Westfalenstadion. As a working-class child, he played football but wasn’t particularly talented. He played nearly 200 matches for clubs in the fourth and fifth divisions around Dortmund and quickly realized that he wouldn’t make a living playing football. At the age of 22, he enrolled in a sports university in Bochum while simultaneously playing amateur football. He studied there with Hans-Joachim Watzke, and that’s where it all began. In 2010, Watzke took over Borussia’s U17 team and brought Terzić on board as his assistant. It didn’t take long for Sven Mislintat, former Arsenal director but the head of the scouting department at the time, to notice Terzić’s qualities and hire him in his department. He was one of the scouts who watched Robert Lewandowski, Lukasz Piszczek, Shinji Kagawa, Ivan Perišić, Nuri Şahin… Simultaneously, he worked with Watzke and Mislintat, and after good results with the youth team, he progressed to the role of assistant coach for the B team.Only three managers have ever taken Borussia Dortmund to a Champions League final:◎ Ottmar Hitzfeld (1997)◎ Jürgen Klopp (2013)◉ Edin Terzić (2024)BVB are heading to Wembley again. 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/8U08lKoeqy— Squawka (@Squawka) May 7, 2024 Meanwhile, through “Yugoslav connections,” he managed to get in touch with Slaven Bilić, the then-manager of Croatia. He offered to scout Ireland for him before the 2012 Euros. Bilić was impressed with the report and invited him to Lokomotiv Moscow’s coaching staff, but Terzić couldn’t accept. When Bilić took over Beşiktaş, he called him again, and this time he accepted. They worked together for four years in Istanbul and West Ham, and Terzić absorbed knowledge at every opportunity. When Bilić went for dinners with Guardiola, Wenger, or Mourinho after Premier League matches, Terzić would discreetly take notes on everything interesting. After Bilić was sacked from West Ham, Terzić used the break to get his coaching license and graduated alongside Graham Potter, Nemanja Vidić, Nikica Jelavić…They topped PSG and now comes even better news: Klopp could return to Dortmund!?After obtaining his coaching license, he returned to Dortmund and became Lucien Favre’s assistant in the first team. After the Swiss suffered a heavy defeat against a weak Stuttgart in December 2020, he was sacked. Against their expectations, the club appointed Terzić as an interim solution to finish the season and reached an agreement with Marco Rose from Borussia Mönchengladbach to take over in the summer. After a few matches as head coach, he felt how much pressure increased compared to being an assistant.”These laptop coaches work differently than normal coaches. They don’t deal with players’ personalities, only tactics. They base their work on rumors they don’t even know if they’re true. Terzić’s words are empty. I can’t listen to him anymore. It’s like he’s saying the sun will rise tomorrow. His analyses are intangible. They even asked me to speak that language at the coaching course, but I refused. I don’t want to speak ‘box’ when we’ve been saying ‘penalty area’ all our lives. I don’t want to talk about ‘diametrically double sixes.’ That’s not football language,” said the famous Memet Scholl, once a brilliant footballer, but someone who, after his playing career, did nothing but give opinions in the media.Illustrous Reus calls it quits with Dortmund after 12 incredible yearsAt that time, Terzić received support from the best possible source.”What right does he have to judge coaches? I’m really curious. It’s like if I talked about making cars. Actually, I have no idea about that, just like he has no idea what he’s talking about. He tried as a coach, and we saw how far he got. He can’t speak like that about people he doesn’t know. I know some of the coaches he referred to. How come he finds someone who just appeared and hadn’t spoken publicly before boring,” Jürgen Klopp retorted from England.”It was an outstanding team performance.” 👏Edin Terzić was full of praise for his players after a victory in Paris! 🎙 @msmith850 pic.twitter.com/9OKTHY1OLP— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 7, 2024 Contracted until the end of the season awaiting Rose, Terzić worked without pressure. The club’s management didn’t impose any great expectations on him, the fans embraced him warmly as a local lad, and the players appreciated his warmer approach compared to the always-cold Favre. The results were immediate, and the moves were concrete. He changed the goalkeeper, reverted the defensive line to a back four, revived a half-dead team, and revitalized some players who were out of form, like Jadon Sancho and Mahmoud Dahoud. With a series of victories, he eventually led Borussia to the Champions League and won the DFB-Pokal. Probably, at that time, Dortmund regretted the earlier agreement with Rose… But they also made a cunning move.🔙 Slaven Bilic & Edin Terzic 🦅 pic.twitter.com/He1HTmTgcb— mackolik (@mackolik) May 8, 2024 Faced with interest from many clubs in Terzić, Borussia’s top man, Hans-Joachim Watzke, convinced the young coach to stay at the club as a technical director and wait for the right opportunity. It turned out that Marco Rose’s tenure was limited, and they were just waiting for Terzić to continue where he left off. After a year, Rose was sacked, and Terzić got the real chance to select the team from scratch as head coach and implement all his ideas. Although the beginning was weak, after a few months, his Borussia started to click and took the lead in the Bundesliga table. The title was within reach at the Westfalenstadion after 12 years. They just needed to beat Mainz… But, after 25 minutes of play, Borussia was trailing 0-2, and it wasn’t until injury time, when it was too late, that they managed to salvage a draw. Bayern won the title on goal difference.##NAJAVA_MECA_8088407##Terzić cried in front of the Yellow Wall and faced questioning whether he was the right man for Borussia. But the club’s management believed in him and entrusted him to continue and build a new team, especially after their star player Jude Bellingham left for Real Madrid. The new director, Sebastian Kehl, had arranged transfers for Edson Alvarez, Armel Bella-Kotchap, and Stefan Lekovic, but Terzić vetoed all three transfers. He insisted on Marcel Sabitzer from Bayern and keeping Emre Can, whom many claimed was a former player. The last bit of money from the budget for reinforcements was used to bring in striker Niklas Füllkrug from Werder, even though the entire football world expected Borussia to sign a defender since they only had three.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Despite poor domestic performance, where Borussia quickly fell behind the likes of Leverkusen, Bayern, and Stuttgart, everything went well in the Champions League. They navigated a tough group and entered the knockout stage as one of those tricky teams that could upset the favourites. They did just that against Atletico Madrid and then Paris Saint-Germain. They reached the final hurdle where Klopp had stopped 11 years ago. Many might view the two-legged tie against PSG through the lens of luck, as the French side missed many chances, but Terzić’s game preparation was excellent. Hence, luck rewarded him. Full-backs Julian Ryerson and Maatsen completely shut down PSG’s flanks, center-backs Hummels and Schlotterbeck played fantastic games, and Emre Can reminded everyone of his best days at Liverpool and Juventus. Apart from that, Terzić completely revived Sancho and Sabitzer, Füllkrug became a lethal weapon, and Adeyemi played his best football since joining Dortmund. It’s hard to remember when Sancho and Adeyemi worked so hard defensively to help the full-backs as they did in the matches against PSG. That’s why Mbappe and Dembele were forced into tight spaces, and their characteristic runs were nullified. Terzić had to come to terms with the sales of stars like Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham at Borussia, and he managed to compensate for that. Reaching the Champions League final is a huge reward for a club soldier who has been infected with the black-yellow colours since his childhood. If he manages to overcome that final hurdle, it will be the greatest miracle in the club’s history. Greater than Hitzfeld’s title and Klopp’s generation.
