As reported by Ruhr Nachrichten following the departure of Markus Pilawa, the chief scout at Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich in June, Sebastian Kehl and the senior management team have decided that responsibilities in the scouting department will no longer be concentrated on one manager but carried out by a scouting team with equal responsibility.
Those three are Eduard Graf, Laurent Busser and Sebastian Krug. Graf has worked for BVB since 2014 and has many years of successful work as chief scout in Dortmund’s academy. The 33-year-old initially worked as an assistant coach for the U19s. He later worked as a scout and most recently as chief scout in the academy reporting directly to Lars Ricken. Amongst the talents Graf is credited with identifying is Jadon Sancho.
He’s joined by Busser (52), who was with Bayern’s scouting department for 11 years before joining BVB in the summer. France-born Busser previously worked for Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim and is principally credited with identifying Kingsley Coman.
The third in the team responsible for scouting is Sebastian Krug, the former Schalke defender will have responsibility of identifying key talents for the club. 38-year-old Krug is the second manager with a Schalke background at the club; Peter Hermann who was assistant to Mike Büskens with the 2. Bundesliga champions last season, was appointed assistant manager of the first team by Edin Terzić in the summer.
Chief Scout Pilawa had been in post since 2017 and was highly successful. He is credited with identifying talents including Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland and Giovanni Reyna. Hertha Berlin had been negotiating with the former Bochum head of scouting but the Poland-born Pilawa chose instead controversially to sign with Dortmund’s main title rivals.
The 45-year-old’s predecessor Sven Mislintat, who was known as ‘Diamond eye’ for his ability to identify outstanding players including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Sokratis, left Dortmund for Arsenal in similar circumstances in 2017 following a fall out with then coach Thomas Tuchel.
New sporting director Kehl has taken several months to agree on an arrangement for the succession and the innovative three-man scouting team will leave the club less dependent on a single decision maker going forward.
GGFN | Ben McFadyean
