Dino Toppmöller appointed Lens head coach on two-year deal | OneFootball

RC Lens have appointed German coach Dino Toppmöller on a two-year contract, announced on Tuesday, replacing Pierre Sage after his move to Crystal Palace.

The club said in a statement that the 45-year-old fits the profile they sought, describing him as a tactically astute 3-4-3 devotee with strong human qualities. He is the first German to manage Lens.

Toppmöller served as Julian Nagelsmann’s assistant at RB Leipzig from 2020 to 2021 and at Bayern Munich from 2021 to 2023, helping to shape a front-foot style with a high press. He later led Eintracht Frankfurt from 2023 to 2026.

With him on the touchline Frankfurt banked major fees, including Hugo Ekitike to Liverpool for €95m, Omar Marmoush to Manchester City for €75m and Willian Pacho to Paris Saint-Germain for €40m, with youngsters accelerated by his approach.

He has also been tagged as attack minded with defensive looseness. In late 2025 Frankfurt suffered 5-1 Champions League defeats to Atlético and Liverpool, plus a 6-0 league loss to RB Leipzig, then conceded 9 across his final three games before a January 2026 exit.

Fluent in French, a prerequisite set by Lens, he learned the language during spells in Luxembourg at Dudelange in 2009 to 2010 and Hamm Benfica in 2015 to 2016, later coaching both. At Dudelange he delivered multiple domestic trebles and he also managed Virton in 2019.

He is the son of Klaus Toppmöller, the prolific 1970s Kaiserslautern striker, who won three caps for West Germany.

Source: Le Progres