(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 3, 2021 Moenchengladbach's German head coach Marco Rose smiles prior to the German Cup (DFB Pokal) last 16 football match between VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Moenchengladbach in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany. - Marco Rose will be head coach of Borussia Dortmund next season it was announced on February 15, 2021. (Photo by Thomas KIENZLE / various sources / AFP)
Borussia Moenchengladbach’s highly coveted coach Marco Rose will take over at Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season, the two clubs announced on Monday.
Leipzig-born Rose, 44, has long been favourite to succeed interim coach Edin Terzic in the Dortmund dugout.
“We have had a lot of discussions about Marco’s future in the last weeks. Sadly, he has decided…that he would like to join Dortmund in the summer,” Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl said in a statement.
“Until then, we will give everything to reach our goals this season together with Marco,” he added.
Dortmund also confirmed that Rose would arrive in the summer, but did not go further into detail.
“Out of respect for all parties, Borussia Dortmund will only comment on the future under Marco Rose after this season,” the club said in a statement.
He will be charged with reestablishing Dortmund as the second power in German football behind Bayern Munich, after a difficult 2020/21 season under Terzic and former coach Lucien Favre, who was fired in December.
Having joined Gladbach in 2019, he led them to a top-four finish in his first year before guiding them to the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in their history this season.
He previously spent two years at Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg, where he won back-to-back league titles.
A long-term target of Dortmund’s, he has also been linked to the Manchester United job in the past.
His current contract was set to run until 2022, but Gladbach said he had “taken advantage of a clause” which allowed him to leave for the Signal Iduna Park.
According to German magazine Kicker, the clause obliges Dortmund to pay a transfer fee of around five million euros ($6 million).
Sixth and seventh in the table respectively, Dortmund and Gladbach are direct rivals in the race for European qualification this season.
They are also set to face each other in the quarter-finals of the German Cup on March 2.
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