If you receive more messages than you do on your birthday or at Christmas, something special must have happened. In Edin Terzic's case, he became the head coach of Borussia Dortmund.

"The last 24 hours haven't been normal; the last 48 hours haven't been normal," said Terzic on Monday in his first public appearance since his appointment as the BVB head coach. Forty-eight hours earlier, he had been the assistant coach as BVB were beaten 5-1 at home by VfB Stuttgart; 24 hours earlier, he was appointed as the BVB head coach. "First of all, I would like to thank Lucien Favre and Manfred Stefes for the work we've done together over the past two and a half years. It was unbelievably good fun for me. We worked together very harmoniously," Terzic said. 

The defeat on Saturday hurt and, having been part of the coaching staff, "I am to some degree responsible for what happened too," Terzic admitted. "But now there is a chance to put things right again. If I am entrusted with helping the team to show a reaction, I will accept this assignment."

By his own admission, the Sauerland native has been a fan of the club "forever". Aside from a brief spell elsewhere, he has spent the last decade of his life working in various roles for BVB and has been "shaped by what has happened here in the past". During his first spell with the Black & Yellows between 2010 and 2013, the former Westfalia Herne, SG Wattenscheid 09 and BV Cloppenburg player worked as a scout for the first team. He didn't only look for talented youngsters, though; he also nurtured them in his role within the Borussia Dortmund youth team setup. Terzic was the assistant to his former Bochum classmate Hannes Wolf, who went on to work as the head coach for VfB Stuttgart and Hamburger SV among others. The sports science graduate was subsequently appointed as the assistant coach to Slaven Bilic at Besiktas and West Ham United, before returning to BVB to work as Lucien Favre's assistant in 2018. 

Terzic never dared to dream that he would one day be handed the reins at BVB. "An unbelievable situation. I was here at the stadium for the first time as a nine-year-old. Still, I never dreamed that I would be in such a position here." Sporting director Michael Zorc labelled the 38-year-old as "a proven expert who has a great feeling for working with the guys and who also brings the emotion that is needed at Borussia Dortmund".

These are qualities he will now bring to the table in his role as head coach, which is very similar to the role of assistant "because I had contact with and spoke to the players before," Terzic explained. In the role of assistant, however, you are more of an ideas man and question-raiser who talks in the conditional. "That will now change; it will be about making decisions." For him, it is important "that the team speaks about the things that need to be worked on. It is my responsibility to remind them about this."

Speaking on the day after his appointment, Terzic gave a brief glimpse of the way he likes to play football. "There are two ways you can win a football match: you can try to concede one goal fewer than the opposition. But I prefer to try to score one goal more than the opposition." 

Terzic's contract will initially run until the summer of 2021. "That’s a long time, at least 26 competitive games," explained Michael Zorc. "The main focus is on now, the here and now, to get the team back on the right path.”
Christina Reinke