I’d have taken that straight away: Niko Kovac on BVB’s season | OneFootball

One more time. Borussia Dortmund’s 2025/26 Bundesliga season comes to an end on Saturday (May 16, 3:30 p.m.) with the away match against Werder Bremen. In terms of personnel, Niko Kovac (54) can call on almost his full squad.

At the Weser, the BVB coach will only have to do without two regular starters. As expected, Emre Can (32) is out with a torn cruciate ligament, while Ramy Bensebaini (31) is sidelined with an ankle injury. Marcel Sabitzer (32) and Julian Brandt (30), who is likely to play for the Black and Yellows for the last time in his career, were given an extra day to recover. However, the duo will be available, Kovac explained at Friday’s press conference ahead of the Werder match.

A demanding year following last summer’s Club World Cup is now coming to an end. All professionals who are not taking part in the football World Cup starting on June 11 can finally put their feet up. “We’re going to take a nice break and really wind down,” the head coach announced. He is convinced that the players “definitely won’t just laze around.” After a break of a good eight weeks, pre-season training will begin in mid-July.

The club’s decision-makers are already setting the course for next season. Mussa Kaba, only 17 years old, has signed a long-term contract. “A talented young man who has been unlucky and has had to deal with a few injuries,” Kovac said in praise of the defensive midfielder.

Delighted with new signing Gadou

Joining the squad this summer is Joane Gadou (19). Borussia paid around 20 million euros for the centre-back from RB Salzburg. “A young, very, very good player who has done very well in Salzburg,” Kovac raved. The Frenchman brings “good physicality,” the coach is convinced. He sees parallels between the 1.95-metre giant and Tottenham defensive star Micky van de Ven (25).

On the course of the season, Kovac said: “If someone had told us after the Club World Cup that we would finish the season in second place, I would have signed up for that immediately. That’s a great achievement.” However, the results in the cup competitions do put a slight damper on the overall record. “The cup was unfortunate — we would have liked to go one round further,” he recalled, referring to the round-of-16 exit against Bayer Leverkusen (0:1).

Photo: IMAGO

Things also did not go as hoped in the Champions League. Atalanta Bergamo proved too strong in the play-offs, winning 4:1 and 2:0. “That’s our own fault,” he said, not excluding himself from the criticism. Still, his overall verdict was positive: “If I sum up the three competitions, then I’m very satisfied with the season.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.