Athletic Bilbao has already announced the coach who will lead the first team next season: it is Edin Terzic, a 43-year-old German coach who has been inactive since June 2024 – when he left Borussia Dortmund after leading them to the Champions League final, which they then lost to Real Madrid. No, there is nothing to be alarmed about: the famous market policy of Athletic, which by corporate statute can field only Basque players, with Basque origins or at most raised in a youth sector of the autonomous community, does not apply to coaches. In fact, before Terzic, around twenty foreign coaches have led the San Mamés club. Moreover, the former BVB coach is the third coach to work in Bilbao after having ties with Germany: in 1992 Jupp Heynckes moved to the Basque Country after working with Gladbach and Bayern; three years later, in 1995, Dragoslav Stepanovic was hired after having managed, among others, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen.
In reality, Athletic’s choice fits into a rather clear trend: that of La Liga clubs looking towards Germany, and the Bundesliga, when they need to choose a new coach. If we look at the last two seasons, Spanish clubs have welcomed Hansi Flick (former Bayern coach and German national team manager, now at Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (German champion in 2024 with Bayer Leverkusen, then taken by Real Madrid), Pellegrino Matarazzo (former Stuttgart and Hoffenheim, now at Real Sociedad) and Martín Demichelis (who started his coaching career in Bayern’s youth teams, and now sits on the bench of Mallorca). Apart from Xabi Alonso’s, which ended prematurely and controversially, all the other experiences are proving to be positive: Flick is really one step away from a second consecutive title with Barça, Matarazzo is coming off a great victory in the Copa del Rey on the bench of Real Sociedad. And Demichelis is also doing quite well: four wins, two draws, and two losses in the first eight games as coach of Mallorca.
In fact, the fascination of Spanish clubs for German coaches, or those coming from Germany, has existed for many years. Just think that both Real Madrid and Barcelona, between the Seventies and the 2000s, had two German coaches: Lattek and Weisweiler worked in Catalonia between 1975 and 1983, Heynckes and Schuster led the Casa Blanca in the 1990s and the second half of the 2000s. As for the other clubs, the most significant name is Bernd Krauss (a symbolic coach of Gladbach who managed Real Sociedad and Mallorca at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s). Edin Terzic, clearly, hopes to join the group of coaches who will be remembered.