He was on the brink of a sack in August 2024 but somehow survived. But in February 2025, his end finally came. Borussia Dortmund terminated Sven Mislintat’s contract with immediate effect today. The famous club released a two-sentence statement, adding that Lars Ricken, BVB’s sports director, personally informed Mislintat of this decision on Thursday. Of course, for any fan who supports Borussia Dortmund, this was not a surprise. So, the former Arsenal sporting director now has three consecutive sacks on his CV.Former Arsenal director on the brink of sackLet’s start with the last one. He got the job in Dortmund in the capacity of technical director in May 2024, and his job was to oversee “squad planning” at Dortmund. Mislintat was renowned for identifying promising young players for Dortmund to sell at a profit when he was in charge of the club’s scouting operation from 2006-17, a time when Dortmund signed players like Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembélé. He came back to the club for the second time and managed to anger the coach in just a few months. He left the club for the first time after Thomas Tuchel came to Borussia and soon banished Mislintat from the training ground. This time, the exact same thing happened with Nuri Sahin. His “dominant demeanour” during the meetings also seems to be the problem. Former Arsenal director is under sports director Sebastien Kehl in Dortmund’s hierarchy but, according to the reports, repeatedly tried to go it alone with transfers and has approached external players himself.Arsenal’s 2017-2019 era finished with a 148 million lossSo, after he fell with Sahin, he fell with Kehl too. The situation got to the point when CEO Lars Ricken acted as a mediator between the two men and acted as the message barrier between them. How amateurish-like for such a big club as Borussia! Kehn got the extension of his contract in 2024 which clearly was the sign that he ‘won’ the battle between two ‘alpha males’. And since Mislintat didn’t want to calm down and always argued about player (and even coach’s) search, he was let go. Dortmund’s supremo Hans-Joachim Watzke is grooming Ricken as his successor so he ‘pushed’ him to make a decision publicly.”This is a challenge for Lars, he is in charge and he has to make sure that everyone is marching in the same direction. If you have the feeling in the medium term that they are not doing so, you have to change something about the concept” he said at the “SpoBis” industry meeting.Kovac arrives, has to decide on one transfer immediatelySo, after sacking the coach, the Ricken/Kehl duo has now sacked the technical director. There are two consequences for this: the first one is that the club will either pay Mislintat’s wage until 2027 or pay him severe compensation, and the second one is that both men will be ‘judged’ for this sack when the season ends in June. If the results in the meantime don’t get better and if Niko Kovač turns out to be a mistake, they will both be under fire, especially Kehl.Auba reveals shocking things about Tuchel: “It was not the guy I knew a few years ago”Before his return to Dortmund, Mislintat was sacked as the sporting director in Ajax after just 166 days in the office. The Dutch giant launched an investigation into Mislintat after the club recruited a player on transfer deadline day through an agent’s office, which owns shares in Mislintat’s private company. The German executive also worked as the Arsenal sporting director in 2017, when Unai Emery was appointed as boss. He stayed until 2019, when he was replaced by Edu. During his tenure, he bought eight players worth 178 million euros, and they were later sold or released for a total value of 30 million euros.##NAJAVA_MECA_8684231##
