In 1997, Lars Ricken became a club legend with a dream goal, and in 2025 he will be promoted to Dortmund managing director. Sports director Sebastian Kehl was actually considered the favorite to succeed to the throne – he also has to deal with a second person.
Whether Lars Ricken is the proverbial laughing third or the fourth or fifth? You’ll never know. But the decision with which Borussia Dortmund’s club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke stunned even insiders on Monday morning is a scoop: Lars Ricken, 47 years old, BVB’s greatest living club legend and the club’s youth coordinator and head of the youth performance center since 2014, will be his successor in the club’s top position from the end of 2025, when Watzke wants to end his contract as managing director.