Mario Gotze returns to the Bundesliga and the LC
Short on sad
To say 10 years ago that Götze’s return to the Bundesliga and move to Eintracht would be considered progress and a positive outcome for Mario in 2022, there would have been few people willing to believe such a development, to say the least. And to write Götze, looking back on his career, in the famous group of “ever promising” language certainly does not turn. After all, by the age of 22 the young guy has already won the Bundesliga champion three times with Borussia and Bayern, twice won the National Cup, participated in winning the club World Cup and the UEFA Super Cup, and the German team brought victory at the World Cup, scoring a “golden” goal to Argentina in the final of the 2014 World Cup. By soccer standards, the golden boy had an eventful career in just a few years, climbing to the top of popularity, going through difficulties, and then collapsing dramatically and almost instantly from the top.
Without going into the story of Mario’s rise and fall, which could be the subject of a whole film or book, before examining his career in recent years we can only touch on the fact that the incredible pressure that was put on the young guy because of the scandalous transfer to the camp of a major rival and the level of play, which after so many dithyrambs fans always seemed not enough, has done its poisonous work. Before facing a string of injuries Götze broke down psychologically, feeling the eyes of millions of fans guy decided to die in training to meet expectations, but only brought himself to the moral exhaustion and metabolic problems with a bunch of related ills. Almost every match against such a backdrop became opaque, only rare positive outbursts due to the talent and game intelligence reminded about the reasonableness of all the lofty epithets about Mario’s future, they also did not give the management and coaches to cut off the shoulder, giving the midfielder a lot of chances.
The early part of Götze’s professional career has already been dealt with hundreds of times, and after his departure from Bayern and return to Borussia Dortmund in 2016 and up until 2020, there was a period that is not worth writing about, because you simply cannot get anything special out of those four years. Mario, who has become very distant from soccer, was expected to make a beautiful comeback until the last moment, but in the end he waited for a move to the Dutch PSV.
Goetze has hit rock bottom
The German spent virtually two full seasons at the club from Eindhoven. And by today it is safe to say that Götze has done everything to prove his desire to play soccer at a high level.
In his first season for PSV, Mario played in only 25 games in all competitions due to a groin injury, scored 6 goals and made 7 assists. And most of the meetings he spent in an unfamiliar position of right winger, while not losing quality, of course, with reservations on the level of the Eredewisie, which after the Bundesliga, even the extinct Goetze should have been more of a pleasure than a hard job. Whoscored rated the midfielder’s first year at PSV at 7.03, which was little progress compared to past seasons. Mario wasn’t bad in the final third, showing a good level with key passes, but problems with finishing and game tone reminded him.
Most importantly, however, based on the outcome of the past 2021/22 season, the last campaign can confidently be called a lapping campaign. Between July 2021 and May 2022 Goetze played 52 matches in all competitions, scored 12 goals and made 11 assists. Coach Roger Schmidt returned Mario to his usual position of attacking midfielder, and that was the key factor in the German’s high performance. The Whoscored rating rose to 7.3, Götze’s involvement in the attacking actions and their development sometimes from the position of center-back influenced the player’s personal performance and contributed to the success of the whole team – compared to the previous season without a trophy, the Super Cup and the Dutch Cup were taken. At the same time, the Eindhoven side were only 2 points behind the champion Ajax in the league, not 16 points as the year before.
However, the most important achievement can be called a stable season – Mario missed only 6 games because of minor injuries. And injuries, if they stick and take a fancy to a certain player, will not let him rest, no matter in the APL, no matter in Qatar. Therefore, it is not worth complaining about the low level of the Dutch league with its “weak” defenders and rare one-on-one battles. Götze’s motivation alone to produce a successful period in his career after so many failures could have been fruitful at least in the French league, at least in the German one, which eventually reopens its doors for Mario, thanks to the faith of Eintracht.
A chance to win back at least a little
On June 21, the Frankfurt club, who made the most noise last season in the Europa League, announced the signing of Goetze. The contract with the 30-year-old midfielder is until the summer of 2025. The media reported that the transfer fee will be €4 million.
I am madly looking forward to playing for Eintracht. This club is developing amazingly, on an exciting and ambitious path that I can follow along with it. Conversations with the management quickly showed that we are pursuing the same goals and ideas. This club has a great foundation. The stadium, the fans, the city – everything suits me perfectly. I am looking forward to my return to the Bundesliga. In addition, we have the Champions League.
It will be especially good to see Mario in an ambitious team that probably wants to qualify for the top 5 of the Bundesliga again (last season the Eagles finished 11th). And the participation in the Champions League, which was obtained by winning the LE, will only add interest and desire to watch the matches of Eintracht, now with Goetze in the squad, against the top opponents.
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