Dortmund fired coach Sahin to spark a turnaround but its problems run deeper than him

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund hoped that reaching the Champions League final would lay a platform for further success. Instead, it's gone backward.

Firing coach Nuri Sahin on Wednesday was largely seen as inevitable after one win from the last nine games, but there's no clear path to a turnaround.

Youth coach Mike Tullberg will take charge against Werder Bremen on Saturday in the Bundesliga while Dortmund searches for Sahin's replacement. Reports in Germany identified the favorite as ex-Bayern Munich and Monaco coach Niko Kovac but he told Austrian TV on Wednesday, “No one has spoken to me.”

Whoever does take over will inherit an underperforming squad on course for its worst league placing in years.

Here's a look at what's gone wrong for one of Germany's most storied soccer clubs:

With Dortmund 10th in the Bundesliga, it's on track to miss out on the Champions League next season for the first time in a decade.

Sahin, in charge since June, had rocky patches early in his tenure but things were going from bad to worse with four straight losses to start 2025.

His fan favorite status as an ex-Dortmund player and close relationships with senior players may have bought him time.

Even before Sahin took charge, Dortmund's run to the Champions League final arguably masked underlying issues.

Dortmund placed fifth in the Bundesliga last season under Edin Terzic, who resigned at the end of the season, and was arguably fortunate to beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semifinals after PSG repeatedly hit the post and crossbar.

Last Friday, Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl pledged Sahin his full support. Five days later, Sahin was gone.

The apparent hesitation as Dortmund slid down the table over the last month was a contrast to the ruthlessness shown to former coaches. Lucien Favre was fired in December 2020 when Dortmund was fifth, and Peter Bosz lasted five months in 2017.

The difficulties also come at a time when Dortmund's long-term strategy is uncertain. Chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke is leaving later this year after 20 years.

Dortmund used to develop Europe's best young players such as Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho. Now it's fighting to keep up.

Dortmund's German rivals Bayer Leverkusen and Leipzig are competing for the best youngsters and Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz is one of the most in-demand players in world soccer.

The 20-year-old English winger Jamie Gittens is having a strong season with 11 goals from 27 games but Dortmund's youth teams are no longer packed with first-team-ready talent.

When teens have covered for injured first-team players this season they've struggled, and players once considered Dortmund's future haven't developed as planned. Injuries have disrupted 22-year-old U.S. attacking midfielder Gio Reyna, while striker Youssoufa Moukoko has scored only twice all season on loan at Nice.

Money isn't the problem at Dortmund after its lucrative Champions League run last season and the promise of millions more at the Club World Cup in the United States.

The issue has been who to spend it on.

Dortmund has relied heavily on experienced names such as Emre Can, Pascal Gross, Marcel Sabitzer and, until he was injured, Niklas Süle. The squad that reached the Champions League final last season was one of the oldest in the competition, too.

After striker Niclas Füllkrug, signed at 29 and now at West Ham, was a success at Dortmund, the club signed a string of older, late-blooming players based largely on Bundesliga form, with mixed results.

Since the start of last season, Dortmund's only permanent first-team signing from outside the German league is 33-year-old former Brighton midfielder Gross.

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Dortmund players run during a training one day ahead of their Champions League soccer match against FC Bologna, in Dortmund, Germany, Monday Jan. 20, 2025. (Federico Gambarini/dpa/dpa via AP)

Borussia's coach Nuri Sahin looks on during the Champions League soccer match between Bologna and Dortmund at Renato Dall'Ara Stadium, in Bologna, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Michele Nucci/LaPresse via AP)

Dortmund's players react after the Bundesliga soccer match between Holstein Kiel and Borussia Dortmund at the Holstein Stadium in Kiel, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (Gregor Fischer/dpa via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Zelenskyy sat down Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

The U.S. government late Sunday said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace.

The Russian president also has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelenskyy emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”

“Pax Americana” refers to the U.S.’s postwar dominance as a superpower that has brought relative peace to the globe.

Merz warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.

Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”

Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.

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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, leaves through a hotel garage for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz,stands in his office in the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief adviser to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, watches Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arriving at the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)