Sven Mislintat and Sebastian Kehl at the centre of a power struggle at Borussia Dortmund

Sky Germany has revealed that sporting director Sebastian Kehl and squad planner Sven Mislintat are at the centre of a power struggle at Borussia Dortmund.

The basic reason for this struggle is that Mislintat wants Kehl’s job and this has resulted in the pair not getting on. When Mislintat returned to the club it was hoped that his way of working would help spark success at the club, but it has not and the pair cannot work together and limit their interactions.

When it comes to transfer issues the pair have different views. In the summer, the arrivals of Waldemar Anton and Pascal Groß were Mislintat’s ideas, while Yan Couto and Maximilian Beier were Sebastian Kehl’s ideas. The only player the pair agreed on was the signing of Serhou Guirassy.

But it is not just Kehl that Mislintat did this with, the former Arsenal and Stuttgart director wanted Rayan Cherki, while Nuri Şahin did not, and Mislintat also negotiated with Yakuba Minteh over a potential transfer without Kehl knowing before the winger moved to Brighton.

As sporting director, Kehl is said to be in a very weak position, especially as he was not promoted to be Hans-Joachim Watzke’s replacement and Lars Ricken was handed the role instead. On top of this, Kehl has lost Slaven Stanic and Eduard Graf from the Dortmund staff who were pro-Kehl.

This has resulted in Kehl’s ideas usually being voted against, Kehl previously tried to extend the contract of Mats Hummels as well as sign Dean Huijsen for €15m from Juventus, but the ideas were rejected and Anton came in instead. The same thing happened 18 months ago when Kehl proposed the signing of Edson Alvarez, but instead, Emre Can was appointed captain.

GGFN | Jack Meenan