Waldemar Anton: Dortmund’s Iron Core and Defensive Leader
The shouting is part of the deal. "It actually happens in every game that we shout at each other once," Waldemar Anton admitted recently about his on-pitch relationship with Serhou Guirassy. The two know each other well enough, Anton said, to say exactly what they think during a match, even if it sometimes goes too far.
Saturday night in Stuttgart gave him another chance.
When Guirassy trudged off in the 74th minute of Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win over VfB, he took his time. Too much time. Under the new rules, Fabio Silva then had to wait 60 seconds before coming on. Dortmund were down to ten men for that spell, and Niko Kovac did not hide his anger at the striker’s leisurely exit.
Anton, meanwhile, stayed locked on the real task: defending everything.
Back at his former club, where the boos rain down every time he touches the ball after his abrupt move to Dortmund two years ago, the 30-year-old had to block out more than just crosses and through balls. Hostility from the stands, constant duels, a tight scoreline – and once again, neither he nor his team were breached.
The backbone of Kovac’s Dortmund
Defensive work has become a daily grind for Dortmund’s back line since Kovac arrived. Now it looks drilled, hardened, almost ruthless. Last season, BVB already boasted the best defence in the league with just 34 goals conceded. Four matchdays into the new campaign, they have three clean sheets and sit joint top of the defensive charts with Bayern Munich on two goals conceded.
Anton stands right at the centre of that transformation.
After a messy first season in black and yellow, when two muscle fibre tears in quick succession sidelined him longer than ever before in his career, he has turned into what Kovac long ago called him: a “total constant” at BVB.
The coach seizes every opportunity to highlight his centre-back, even if Anton wants nothing to do with big titles like “defensive leader”. Ahead of the Champions League opener against Villarreal, Kovac laid it out anyway: Anton is a leader, someone who lives football around the clock, drives his teammates, refuses to give in and empties the tank for the team. A role model, in his coach’s eyes.
Last season, he backed that praise with numbers. Anton delivered an excellent campaign, often looking more secure than his partner Nico Schlotterbeck, who missed time with injury at the start of the year. The “Ironman”, as Kovac dubbed him, barely missed a beat: out for only three of 47 competitive matches in 2025/26, and in league and cup he played all 35 appearances from first whistle to last.
Always there, always uncompromising
Even a World Cup with Germany could not slow him down. While many Dortmund players enjoyed a full pre-season, Anton returned late. It hardly showed. The 15-cap international simply carried his form over the summer and picked up where he had left off.
His value, though, is not just that he is almost always available.
Anton leads with discipline and mentality. He defends without drama, just hard, clean, relentless. He reads danger early, steps in front, wins the duel, and moves on. His anticipation has become one of his standout traits. Since Mats Hummels, no one at BVB has defended on the front foot with such timing and intelligence.
The numbers underline it: Anton ranks among the league’s best in duel success rate, aerial battles won, interceptions and clearances. He anchors Dortmund’s stability and has become one of the defining faces of their resurgence under Kovac. On current form, there is no German centre-back playing better.
The Klopp question
That inevitably leads to the national team.
Jürgen Klopp, like Kovac, wants a Germany side built on a rock-solid base. Anton fits that blueprint almost perfectly. He brings years of experience, looks sharp both physically and mentally, organises the back line and gives younger defenders a reference point. He offers almost everything Klopp needs for his new DFB project.
Long term, Schlotterbeck’s strong left foot and his diagonal passing in build-up could tilt the balance in his favour in certain systems. And at Bayern Munich, Jonathan Tah remains the clear number one at centre-back.
But with Anton playing at this level, leaving him out of decisive plans for Germany’s restart becomes harder by the week.
He will not shout about it. Self-promotion is not his style. Kovac once summed him up as very calm, modest, humble – a player who pushes his own ego aside and puts the team first.
At Dortmund, currently setting the pace in the league, there is no debate about his status anymore. The boos in Stuttgart may continue. The duels will keep coming. The question now hangs somewhere else: in a new-look Germany under Klopp, how long can anyone ignore the Ironman of BVB?
