Forgotten Liverpool man who left Borussia Dortmund because of Jurgen Klopp returns to rescue crisis club

Borussia Dortmund legend Nuri Sahin has returned to the club as an assistant head coach.

The former midfielder, who also had brief stints at Liverpool and Real Madrid, leaves his post as manager of Turkish Super Lig side Antalyaspor to work alongside the hugely under-pressure Edin Terzic.

Dortmund announced the news in a club statement, with Sahin to be joined by former teammate Sven Bender, who was working as an assistant at the Germany U17 side.

The pair will join the squad on January 3 for their training camp in Marbella before the Bundesliga resumes on January 12. Both have signed until 2025.

Terzic is under big pressure despite leading Dortmund to the top of their Champions League Group of Death, with their domestic form of huge concern.

BVB are winless in six, a run which includes a DFB Pokal exit to Stuttgart, which prompted a crisis meeting between management according to multiple reports.

Since then they’ve dropped out of the Bundesliga title race, and their chances of a top four finish look increasingly in danger.

A draw at home against Mainz in their final game of 2023 prompted another crisis meeting between CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and sporting director Sebastian Kehl, with Terzic again surviving.

That could be short-lived, though, with the Turkish outlet that first broke the story, Sports Digitale, claiming Sahin will replace Terzic as head coach in the summer.

Sahin, 35, retired from football in 2021 while at Antalyaspor to become the side’s manager, and guided them to seventh and 13th in the league despite one of the division’s lowest budgets, and he leaves with the team in eighth this season.

A Bundesliga winner under Jurgen Klopp in 2011, Sahin was named the division’s player of the season for his exceptional