Borussia Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac wants to bring the best out of his World Cup returnees step by step and is cautious against throwing them at the deep end right away.
The Black and Yellow are set to welcome five of their first team stars who participated in this year's showpiece as Maximilian Beier, Waldemar Anton, Felix Nmecha, Daniel Svensson and Carney Chukwuemeka are all set to make their first appearance in the 2026 pre-season campaign for Dortmund tomorrow against FC Tokyo.
The players joined the squad last weekend and flew to Japan for the BVB Evonik Japan tour but sat out of their friendly to Cerezo Osaka on Wednesday. In his latest press conference, Kovac revealed that each of them will be receiving significant gametime in tomorrow's game as he looks to reintegrate them into the squad gradually.
"“They’ve been training with the team for a week now and are ready to play 45, maybe even 60 minutes against Tokyo tomorrow. We want to build on that gradually. We still have two matches against Arsenal and Roma before the Super Cup game against Bayern Munich, and we want to push the lads to their limits step by step.” "he said to the press today
Borussia Dortmund return home at the weekend but will be participating in the 2026 Emirates Cup against Arsenal in London on 9 August before a home game against AS Roma on 15 August, their last warmup fixture before the curtain-raiser against Bayern Munich in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup the following week.
Kovac hails Beier as 'key player'
Although Maximilian Beier had a minimal role in Germany's squad at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, playing a grand total of just 26 minutes in the competition (against Ecuador in the group stages), Niko Kovac looks up to the 23-year-old as an important figure in his Borussia Dortmund team.
The Croatian revealed that he will be reinstating Beier in his preferred position on the wings tomorrow while praising his versatility too. Speaking at their pre-match press conference today, Kovac was quoted saying:
"“Maxi Beier is a key player on our team, one who can play multiple positions. He’s a national team player and was part of the World Cup squad. We’ll have him play on the wing tomorrow. Maxi is a player who puts his own ego aside. He wants to help the team and has proven that he can perform really well both up front and on the wing. I know that Maxi will give it his all, no matter where he plays.”"
Add us as a preferred source on Google