DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund has dipped into the German second division to appoint a new sporting director who won praise for making impactful transfers on a budget.
Ole Book steps up from Elversberg, a team from a town of around 13,000 people. That's less than one-sixth of the capacity of Dortmund's stadium.
He'll replace Sebastian Kehl, who had been sporting director since 2022, including for Dortmund's run to the 2024 Champions League final. He left with Dortmund 9 points off Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich and with uncertainty over the future of key defender Nico Schlotterbeck, who has a year left on his contract.
“In our conversations we soon noticed that Ole has an extremely great hunger for success, high ambitions and tremendous team spirit,” Dortmund's spokesman for the management Carsten Cramer said in a statement.
“This aligns with our values and what we want to embody at Borussia Dortmund. Now the task is to shape the future of our club in a bold and successful way. That's what drives us.”
Despite its modest origins, Elversberg rose from the regional fourth tier to the second division during Book's eight years in sporting leadership roles and nearly won promotion to the Bundesliga last season before losing a playoff. It's second in the table currently.
Standout signings included forward Younes Ebnoutalib, who arrived from a fourth-tier club in early 2025 and scored 12 times in 17 second-division games before being sold to Eintracht Frankfurt in January 2026.
Also Monday, Dortmund said midfielder Felix Nmecha will be out for “several weeks” with a knee injury which also keeps him out of Germany's upcoming friendlies against Switzerland and Ghana ahead of the World Cup.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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