Budolin, Germany's new men's coach

Aleksei Budolin has been appointed the new head coach of the German men’s national team with immediate effect. The Estonian leaves his position with Uzbekistan after little more than a year and takes charge of a German men’s program searching for renewed international success.

According to JudoInside, Budolin succeeds the interim coaching structure of Karl-Richard Frey, Mario Schendel, Sebastian Seidl and Ralf Matusche, who had guided the men’s team during the transitional period after the German Judo Federation and Marko Spittka parted ways in March, this year, after a short tenure. Interestingly, Spittka was also coaching in Uzbekistan before this, and had had great success with Olympic Champion Diyora Keldiyorova.

Germany is quite familiar territory for Budolin. Between 2001 and 2008, he competed in the Bundesliga for TSV Abensberg, one of the country’s traditional judo powerhouses, giving him first-hand experience of the German judo system long before coaching became his profession.

Budolin had a successful international career as a competitor, winning an Olympic bronze in 2000. The following year, in 2001, he became European Champion and World Silver Medalist.

 
After his competitive career, Budolin moved into coaching and became Estonia’s head coach in 2013. His international career subsequently took him to Switzerland in 2017. The most significant result of Budolin’s Swiss stint Involved Nils Stump, who became Switzerland’s first senior World Champion in 2023. 

In 2025 Budolin chose a very different challenge when he joined Uzbekistan. The move followed the departure of Ilias Iliadis and Marko Spittka after a highly successful period for Uzbek judo.

The timing of the appointment highlights the challenge awaiting him. Germany has selected eleven individual competitors for the World Championships in Baku, but only two are men: Eduard Trippel at -90kg and Losseni Kone at +100kg. The other nine German entries are women. There is a big imbalance here.

Budolin’s most celebrated coaching achievement was Stump winning a World title. His next task is potentially more challenging: Rebuilding Germany ’s men’s team.