After weeks of speculation, Borussia Mönchengladbach confirmed on Monday that head coach Marco Rose will leave the club at the end of the season in order to take charge of Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund.
The 44-year-old’s contract with Gladbach runs until 2022, but Dortmund are set to trigger a €5 million ($6m) release clause to bring Rose from one Borussia to the other.
“We’ve had many discussions about Marco’s future in recent weeks,” said Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl, after tabloid BILD and football magazine Kicker had broken the news. “Unfortunately, he has decided to make use of a clause in his contract and move to Borussia Dortmund in the summer.”
Dortmund themselves confirmed the move but said they would be refraining from commenting further until the end of the season.
Dortmund had made Rose their number one target to take over long term from former head coach Lucien Favre, who was sacked in December. Under interim coach Edin Terzic, the Black and Yellows have only won four out of ten league games and have dropped to sixth in the Bundesliga level on points with seventh place Gladbach.
Despite a poor recent run of form – Gladbach haven’t won in three games either and lost a local derby to Cologne last week – Rose’s rapid rise has quickly generated interest.
He began his coaching career with hometown club Lokomotive Leipzig in 2012 before coaching several Red Bull Salzburg academy teams. He took over Salzburg’s first team in 2017, winning the Austrian Bundesliga and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time.
He was headhunted by Gladbach sporting director Eberl ahead of the 2019-20 season and led the Foals to fourth place, returning them to the Champions League for the first time since 2016, where they progressed through a group containing Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
Under Rose’s tutelage, Gladbach have impressed with an aggressive pressing game and a potent attack built around Marcus Thuram, Alassane Pléa and captain Lars Stindl. Behind them, Florian Neuhaus and Denis Zakaria have developed into two of the Bundesliga’s top midfielders.
Gladbach’s offensive style of play has seen them outscore both Bayern Munich (3-2) and Borussia Dortmund (4-2) since the turn of the year, playing the sort of football that the BVB bosses want to see at the Westfalenstadion.
Rose will face his future employers again in the German Cup quarterfinal on March 2.