Waldemar Anton: Borussia Dortmund's Defensive Leader

Waldemar Anton knew exactly what he was doing when he barked at Serhou Guirassy. It was nothing new.

"It actually happens in every game that we shout at each other once," he had admitted recently. On Saturday night in Stuttgart, the ritual played out again – only this time, it came with consequences.

Guirassy ambled off in the 74th minute of Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win at VfB Stuttgart, too slowly for Niko Kovac’s liking and too slowly for the new rules. Fabio Silva had to wait 60 seconds before he could come on. BVB were down to ten men in a tight game. Kovac fumed on the touchline. Anton let his striker know exactly what he thought.

And then he went straight back to work.

Booed in Stuttgart, Unbeaten in Dortmund

Back at his old home, Anton walked into a wall of noise. Every touch booed, every clearance jeered. Two years on from his abrupt move to Dortmund, Stuttgart fans still haven’t forgiven him.

He did not flinch.

At 30, Anton has grown used to hostility and heavy lifting. Under Kovac, defensive work has become Dortmund’s daily bread, and the coach has turned that burden into a weapon. 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 share top spot in the defensive charts with Bayern Munich, both on two goals conceded.

Anton stands right at the heart of that transformation.

From Fragile Start to “Total Constant”

His first year in black and yellow never really got going. Two muscle fibre tears, almost back to back, robbed him of rhythm and left him sidelined longer than at any other point in his career. The timing was awful. The expectations were high.

He responded by becoming exactly what Kovac wanted: a “total constant”.

The coach has not stopped praising him since. He does it publicly, he does it privately. Ahead of the Champions League opener against Villarreal, Kovac summed him up in one breath: “He is a leader. Someone who leads the way. He thinks, eats, sleeps, drinks football 24/7. Someone who supports his team-mates, never gives up and gives everything for the team – a role model.”

Anton shrugs off labels like “defensive leader”, but his numbers shout it for him.

Last season he was the Ironman of Dortmund’s back line. Kovac called him exactly that: “Ironman.” Out of 47 competitive matches in 2025/26, Anton missed only three. In league and cup, he played all 35 games from first whistle to last. No rotation, no early substitutions, no hiding.

World Cup, Short Break, Same Level

Even the World Cup could not knock him off course. While others eased their way back after a long summer, Anton had one of the shortest preparation periods of any Dortmund player. It barely left a mark.

The 15-cap Germany international simply carried his form into the new season. Same intensity, same sharpness, same stubborn refusal to be beaten.

His value goes far beyond just being available. Anton leads with discipline and resilience. He does not need grand gestures. He plays without fuss, defends with edge, and treats every duel like a personal challenge. He anticipates danger early, steps in front, nicks the ball, kills attacks before they breathe.

Since Mats Hummels, no one at BVB has defended on the front foot with such intelligence and timing.

The Best German Centre-Back Right Now?

The data only underlines what the eye test already suggests. Anton ranks among the league’s elite for 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 and given his start to the season, there is no German centre-back performing better.

That is why it is so hard to imagine Germany’s restart under Jürgen Klopp without him playing a central role. Klopp wants a side built on a rock-solid foundation. Anton offers exactly that: experience, physical power, mental sharpness, organisation at the back and a calming hand for younger defenders. He ticks almost every box for the future DFB blueprint.

National Team Battle: Anton, Schlotterbeck, Tah

The competition, though, is real.

Long term, Nico Schlotterbeck’s strong left foot and his diagonal passing in build-up could give him a tactical edge in the national team set-up. And at Bayern Munich, Jonathan Tah is firmly established as the number one centre-back.

Anton sits right in that triangle. He may not have the glamour of a ball-playing libero, but he has something coaches crave: reliability, clarity, and an almost old-school defensive mentality.

Kovac once described him as “very calm, very modest, very humble”: a player who pushes his ego to one side and the team to the front. That attitude will not generate headlines or social media clips. It wins trust in dressing rooms and on team sheets.

Time will decide how the hierarchy in Germany’s central defence shakes out. At Dortmund, where BVB sit on top of the table and boast the meanest defence, the debate has already been settled.

Waldemar Anton is the man in charge at the back – and nobody there is contesting it.