<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"><tbody><tr><td class="axelh">Borussia Dortmund Sign Robert Kovac</td></tr><tr><td class="small"> </td></tr><tr><td class="fmn"><b>[20.06.] Robert Kovac (64 caps for the Croatian national team) joins BVB on a free transfer from Italian Serie A club Juventus Turin! The 33-year old defender signed a two-year contract (until 30 June, 2009) with Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday. "With his huge international experience, Robert will bring a big improvement to our defense", said BVB Director of Sport, Michael Zorc.</b></td></tr><tr><td class="small"> </td></tr><tr><td class="fmn"><table id="p98437" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="254" align="right" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><img title="" height="194" alt="bild" src="http://bilder.sportsandbytes.de/bvb/20062007/foto_n_1182353875.jpg" width="250" border="0"/></td></tr><tr><td class="fms">Robert Kovac is happy to be back in the Bundesliga in the 2007/2008 season.</td></tr></tbody></table>Robert Kovac grew up with his brother Niko and their Croatian parents in Berlin, where he first played for Rapide Wedding and Hertha Zehlendorf. He started his professional career with 1. FC Nürnberg in 1995 before he moved on to Bayer Leverkusen a year later.<br/><br/>From 2001 to 2005, Robert Kovac was under contract with Bayern München from where he joined Juventus Turin. With Bayern, Kovac won the World Team Cup, tow German championships and also became German Cup winner twice. With the Croatian national team, the 1.82 m tall defender played in the 20002 and 2006 World Cups and the Euro 2004. Robert Kovac is married and has two children with his wife Anica.<br/><br/>"I am looking forward to the new challenge at BVB", the latest new signing said after putting pen to paper. A possible move back to his native Croatia would have been an option otherwise, but Kovac could not agree on terms with Dinamo Zagreb, who were also interested in his services. "However, from a competitive point of view, the task in Dortmund is much more attractive and I am happy to be back in the Bundesliga next season", said Robert Kovac.<br/></td></tr></tbody></table>
