“He’s unbelievable!”: Kovac likens this Dortmund star to Kimmich | OneFootball

Joshua Kimmich has been a mainstay and the conductor in midfield for FC Bayern for years. The captain of the German national team is also a fixture under Vincent Kompany in the center and is one of the indispensable performers of the record champions. Now, his former coach Niko Kovac has compared a BVB player with Kimmich.

Kovac coached Kimmich between 2018 and 2020 at FC Bayern. Even then, he praised his tireless commitment, his running strength, and his consistency at the highest level. The Croatian is now on the sidelines at Borussia Dortmund - and was raving on Friday at the press conference when he was asked about Daniel Svensson.

"Daniel is insane. That's Daniel Düsentrieb. He is one who has incredible capacities. A player who doesn't mind running 13 kilometers every third day," Kovac explained enthusiastically. This was followed by the remarkable comparison with one of his former protégés: "He reminds me a bit of Joshua Kimmich. He also plays every game and runs 12, 13 kilometers." For him, Svensson is a "Duracell bunny" who never gets tired.

Photo: IMAGO

"The guys are tireless"

While Svensson works the left side at Dortmund, both as a rail player and as an outside defender, Kovac sees the parallels less in the position, but rather in the mentality and resilience. "It's one and the same range in a different position, but it shows that the guys are tireless and march endlessly," says Kovac.

With a completed running distance of 42.4 kilometers, Kimmich ranks 15th in the current Bundesliga season. Bitter for the 30-year-old: In the 4:1 victory against TSG Hoffenheim, the regular player was given a short breather and was only substituted in the middle of the second half. Without this forced break, the DFB star would certainly be among the top 10 in the league.

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