Manchester United have reportedly made contact with Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kova\u010d as the club examines candidates for a permanent appointment from the summer of 2026. Interim boss Michael Carrick has guided an improved performance and, while the club consider a wider sweep of options, he remains an internal candidate.<\/p>\n
After the Amorim experiment hit the wall 14 months into his appointment, United are conscious of the need to choose carefully if \u2018Project 150\u2019 is to have any chance of succeeding. Sky Germany says Kova\u010d is “on the shortlist” at Old Trafford after a year in charge of Dortmund.<\/p>\n
Kova\u010d inherited a side sitting 11th in the Bundesliga midway through last season and took them to fourth place and Champions League qualification. Dortmund also reached the last eight of the Champions League, being eliminated by Barcelona, and this season sit second behind Bayern Munich while remaining well placed to reach the knockout rounds again.<\/p>\n
Dortmund extended Kova\u010d\u2019s contract until 2027 last summer, but reports suggest managing in England is on his career list. He is said to have turned down Tottenham Hotspur in 2021 when Jos\u00e9 Mourinho was sacked, while at Monaco, and was an apparent consideration for Chelsea earlier this month before they appointed Liam Rosenior.<\/p>\n
Kova\u010d\u2019s playing career was modest, peaking with two years at Bayern Munich from 2001\u20132003. He reached the top flight in 1996 with a move to Bayer Leverkusen and later had a bit-part role at Bayern before rejoining Hertha BSC. A move to Red Bull Salzburg at 34 delivered what the draft describes as his fourth trophy after successes at Bayern.<\/p>\n
His coaching pathway began in Salzburg\u2019s setup, then Croatia U21s in 2012 and the senior national job in 2013. He won the DFB Pokal with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2018 and led Bayern to a domestic double in 2018\u201319, leaving after a poor start the following season. Stints at Monaco and Wolfsburg followed; he was sacked by Monaco in 2022 and by Wolfsburg in 2024 and has not won a trophy since 2019.<\/p>\n
The club remain focused on candidates with proven success, with reports last week indicating \u201cwinning pedigree\u201d is an important criterion as United plan for the long term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United have spoken with Niko Kova\u010d as they assess options to appoint a permanent manager in summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1348,1397],"tags":[1021,1047,1087],"class_list":["post-6105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united-news","category-transfer-news","tag-amorim","tag-champions-league","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}