Borussia Dortmund has found a successor for Lars Ricken, who has been promoted to Managing Director Sport. Thomas Broich will become head of the youth academy on July 1.

Former Bundesliga professional Thomas Broich will be the new head of Borussia Dortmund’s youth academy. The 43-year-old former head of methodology at second-division club Hertha BSC has been signed by BVB until June 30, 2027 and will begin his role at the Champions League finalists on July 1. This was announced by the Westphalians on Friday.

Broich has been with Hertha, who recently knocked Dortmund U19s out of the semi-finals of the German championship, since 2022. He had previously worked as an assistant coach at Brisbane City in his long-time sporting home of Brisbane and then coached the Frankfurt youth team in the 2020/21 season.

From July 1, he will take over in Dortmund from the previous head of the youth department Lars Ricken, who took over from Hans-Joachim Watzke on May 1 and was promoted to Managing Director Sport.

“Thomas has a huge passion for promoting young talent and has a wealth of experience as a professional in the Bundesliga and abroad,” said his predecessor Ricken about the former Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Köln and FC Nürnberg player. Broich was also active as a professional in Australia. “He is also known as a TV pundit, has proven his expertise in this area and thus brings another facet of soccer to the table,” said Ricken.

“Great agreement” between Broich’s visions and Ricken’s ideas

In discussions with Ricken, Broich recognized a “great deal of agreement between his vision for the future and my ideas” and was looking forward to working in an NLZ that “has the same ambition as I do to constantly develop its own training concept and playing ideas.”

There is one position that Broich needs to close as quickly as possible. “BVB is losing Otto Addo in the youth sector this summer. The 48-year-old, who was previously a top talent coach at the Bundesliga club, will become the national coach of Ghana.”