Kovač on Groß’ decision to leave: “This hurt me personally”

The BVB coach said he was upset by the midfielder’s decision to leave but didn’t want to prevent the player from making his desired move.

After it was confirmed on Friday that Pascal Groß had left Borussia Dortmund to join Brighton & Hove Albion, Niko Kovač shared his thoughts on the move. 

Interestingly, despite Groß hardly featuring for BVB this season, the coach revealed he was upset at the 34-year-old’s decision to leave the Westphalian club.

“This hurt me personally. I valued him as a player, but also as a person. He wants to go to the World Cup; that’s his stated goal. We didn’t want to stand in his way,” Kovač told Sky.

It’s clear that Kovač valued the midfielder highly but acknowledged that Groß wanted to increase his playing minutes in the hope of travelling with Germany to the 2026 World Cup.

Kovač also ruled out making signings to replace Groß before dismissing a question from Sky Germany’s Patrick Berger on whether 17-year-old Mussa Kaba could fill the empty void. 

“Mussa hasn’t been with us very often yet; he wasn’t at the Club World Cup. We’ll have to wait and see. We must not rush things.

“It’s always much easier to integrate a young player when you have a lot of games and then win big,” explained the 54-year-old.