Edin Terzic, 38 years old, has been the head coach of Borussia Dortmund since 13 December 2020. How have his first days with the team been? What plan is he following? Who are his supporting cast?

Recovery training. Pre-game training. Game.

Recovery training. Pre-game training. Game.

Recovery training. Day-off. Pre-game training. Game. A brief holiday.

Between his appointment to the role of head coach and start of the brief Christmas break, former assistant coach Edin Terzic could only dream of having sufficient time to make his mark on the team and work on tactical elements out on the training pitch. It was not until the build-up to the home game against VfL Wolfsburg on 3 January that the new man in charge had a full five days of training. The time was used both wisely and intensively. ''I can't just throw new content at the team,'' explains Terzic, who doesn't want to hastily implement a different style of play, but rather remain pragmatic in his thinking: ''This team have done so many good things in the past two-and-a-half years. We want them to remember their strengths and get back to demonstrating them out on the pitch.''

Who is Edin Terzic?

The son of Bosnian-Croat parents, Edin Terzic was born on 30 October 1982 in Menden (Sauerland). He successfully graduated from high school and was a prolific goalscorer for youth football teams. He represented Sportfreunde Oestrich-Iserlohn (today FC Iserlohn), Wattenscheid 09, BV Cloppenburg and Westfalia Herne in the upper-reaches of the amateur game, playing 189 games and scoring 23 goals in the process. ''However, it became clear early on that I was part of the 99 percent of players who won't make it all the way to the top.''

Terzic studied sports science at the Ruhr University in Bochum and was brought to Borussia in 2010 by his former fellow student, BVB youth coach Hannes Wolf (now Germany U18 national coach), where he occupied a part-time role as a youth assistant coach and a part-time role as a scout. Even back then, his credo was: "I don't want to go to work, I want to go to training."  

From 2013 to 2017, Terzic worked as an assistant to former Croatia national coach Slaven Bilic, first at Besiktas (2013-2015) then at West Ham United (2015-2017). In 2018, he returned to Borussia Dortmund, where he soon became a valued member of the first-team coaching staff. With his know-how, his imagination in setting up the daily training programme and, not least, his empathy, he quickly gained respect and recognition among the players. "I am a product of Borussia Dortmund," he says about himself: "I come from the region, have been a fan for years and have been able to work at the club for for ten years - with a short interruption."

Terzic has been married to his wife Kora, 36, since 2013. They have two daughters (three and five years old).

What ideas does Terzic follow?

''The players are still allowed to address him informally. Everyone should also know that he has been a BVB fan since childhood and is currently living a dream that he would never have dared to dream. He simply remains Edin. And that goes down well in a city like Dortmund, a city in which down-to-earth workers are still appreciated,'' wrote kicker magazine about the new head coach, who doesn't make much fuss about himself or his role: ''I'm still just the same size, the same age.'' Terzic keeps it short and simple when describing his footballing ideas: ''There are two ways to win a football match: you can try to concede fewer goals than your opponents, or you can try score more than them.'' It became clear which approach Terzic favours when he chose his first line-ups for the three games before Christmas; on each occasion, five attacking players were included in the starting XI.

Terzic has the following to say about his new role: "As an assistant coach, you are more the idea generator, the questioner from time to time, and you often talk in the subjunctive. Now it's about making decisions."

What does Terzic want to work on?

''It's clear that we've lost our sense of effortlessness and magic. All of a sudden ''the team found things more difficult than they were at the start of the season. You can't say: play with more confidence, play boldly and then just expect them to go and do it. It doesn't just happen at the push of a button. We have to find a way to do it together.''

Who are his supporting cast?

Former U17 coach Sebastian Geppert, 37, and "talent coach" Otto Addo, 45, have joined the new coaching staff. "Sebastian has done a very good job here at the youth performance centre. He's a Dortmund boy and should bring a breath of fresh air through his boldness," says Terzic of his long-time friend Geppert: "We've played football together, we've trained together, we've worked together here. As a result, we share a great bond of trust."

Geppert, born in Wanne-Eickel on 11 January 1984, played in the Regionalliga for SG Wattenscheid 09 and DSC Wanne-Eickel, among others. He has been working as a youth coach for Borussia Dortmund since 2013. In 2016, he took over as head coach of the U17s, leading them to the German Championship in 2018 and finishing as runners-up the following season. Many top talents developed under his tutelage, including Luca Unbehaun, Tobias Raschl, Ansgar Knauff; not to mention Youssoufa Moukoko, who celebrated his starting XI debut with the first team under the Terzic/Geppert coaching duo in Bremen. "The fact that Youssoufa made his first Bundesliga start when I was in the dugout for the first time is almost like something out of a fairytale," says Geppert, who has taken a quote made by Jürgen Klopp and turned it into his modus operandi: "The desire to win must be greater than the fear of losing." This attitude helped inspire Geppert's U17 teams to pick up 253 points from 107 games.

Otto Addo was one of the first signings made by then recently-appointed sporting director Michael Zorc in 1999. The attacker made a total of 98 appearances for BVB (16 goals) until 2005, winning the Bundesliga title in 2002. His most memorable moment in Black & Yellow came in a UEFA Cup tie in Vienna in September 2003, when he scored a wonder goal with a torn cruciate ligament - winner of the "Goal of the Year" award on ARD. After coaching stints at Hamburger SV (U19), FC Nordsjælland (assistant coach) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (helping players transition from youth to senior level), he returned to BVB in 2019, where he took up a similar role to that which he had in Gladbach. The most important teaching principle he shares with his elite students is: "You don't just have to want to be a little bit better than your competitor; you have to be a whole lot better."

What does the club expect?

''We think the team needs a new approach in order to get back on an upward trajectory. Edin is a proven professional, a positive guy, who has a good feel for dealing with players and displays the level of emotion that's required here at Borussia Dortmund,'' says sporting director Michael Zorc. The new head coach has been tasked with stabilising the team, helping them rediscover the form they showed in the very successful first few weeks of the season and ultimately securing a top-four finish and the associated qualification for next season's UEFA Champions League. What happens after that is, as of today, still open. Zorc has spoken of a ''contract until summer 2021,'' and on the day of Terzic's appointment, he said: ''We have at least 26 competitive games until then. I hope it will be more. What then happens in the summer is far away.''

Boris Rupert