“Completely blindsided”: Dino Toppmöller reveals explosive details about the dismissal in France

Speaking on the podcast of his advisory agency "Spielmacher von 360Media", the 45-year-old explained the circumstances around his exit from the French top-flight club after just six competitive matches. The decision came as a major surprise. Toppmöller had opened with victory over serial champions Paris Saint-Germain in the French Super Cup and, shortly before his dismissal, led the side to an away win in the Champions League at Slavia Prague.

Inside the club, the mood still seemed positive at that stage. Toppmöller said president Joseph Oughourlian called the dressing room straight after the away success to share his delight. In Toppmöller’s view, at the time "everyone was totally euphoric" and the president had been "unbelievably happy, unbelievably proud".

Then came the turning point in a two-hour meeting. Sporting director Jean-Louis Leca and general director Benjamin Parrot told the head coach they wanted to part ways with his long-serving assistant coach Nelson Morgado. The management saw the 39-year-old assistant as "too demanding, too loud, rubs too many people up the wrong way". They believed Morgado had become a "disruptive factor" for the internal atmosphere within the coaching staff.

That left Toppmöller with an ultimatum: either he cut ties with his close confidant or the club would make a change in the head coach position. He said the meeting itself remained calm throughout. Toppmöller said: "The conversation over those two hours was a very harmonious one. They wanted to convince me that it would also be better for me and for the whole group."

Why was Dino Toppmöller sacked by RC Lens?

For Toppmöller, though, sacrificing his assistant was never an option. "If I had seen that some extreme misconduct had taken place, then of course I could not have tolerated that. But it simply was not the case," he said, rejecting the demand from the senior leadership.

His spell in France ended there and then. The former Frankfurt coach continued: "You do not just give that up like that. But if I had had to violate values, then I accept that in that moment I do not have a job." He added: "For me, it was not worth considering dropping someone who had done nothing out of the ordinary. And so it is important to me that even today I can still look at myself in the mirror, instead of standing on the touchline."

Even Toppmöller’s family struggled to understand the decision. His father Klaus Toppmöller, a former Bundesliga striker and a coach for many years himself, including at Frankfurt, Bochum and Leverkusen, said of his son’s dismissal: "Have they completely lost it?"

Now Toppmöller wants a swift return to the touchline despite two spells of gardening leave within a calendar year. He ruled out an extended break: "I do not need a year off now."