Once a World Cup hero for Germany in 2014, then a might fall. If we take a look at Mario Gotze’s life, we can conclude it like this. Gotze is a player who has been on a rollercoaster during his football career. He has been to the extremes as a player.
Gotze is a product of Dortmund’s youth academy, first entering the club as an eight-year-old. He made his Bundesliga debut on 21 November 2009 in a scoreless draw against Mainz 05, coming on as a substitute. During the winter break of the 2009–10 Bundesliga season, Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp promoted Gotze to the first team.
He finished the 2009–10 season with five appearances. Gotze took his chance and was an important player in Dortmund’s Bundesliga-winning squad of the 2010–11 season. He finished 2010–11 season with eight goals in 41 appearances. In 2010, German Football Association’s then technical director Matthias Sammer described Gotze as “one of the best talents Germany has ever had.”
After spending five years with Dortmund, he went to their direct rivals Bayern Munich after the team had triggered Götze’s release clause of 37 million euors. The transfer made Gotze the most expensive German player at that time.
His start with the Bavarians was good, but slowly he realised that his decision to move to Bayern was not a good one. But during his spell with Bayern, he was a hero for the national team after scoring the winning goal in the final against Argentina. After spending three seasons, Gotze confirmed his return to Dortmund on a four-year contract. He also stated that he regretted his decision to join Bayern Munich three years before. But he started to struggle as a footballer even after returning to Dortmund.
In 2017, he started to have some metabolic disorders, which affected his performance. He was struggling, and in that year after returning after the recovery, he said: “The metabolic disturbances are now part of my life. I am happy to be back and to be able to do what I love.”
But the disorder continued to affect his life, and On 23 May 2020, Borussia Dortmund sport director Michael Zorc stated that Gotze would leave the club at the end of the season.
After his release, Gotze spent the off-season with his new family and focused on personal growth, throwing himself into yoga and fitness training. After many rumours, he signed for the Dutch club PSV as a free agent. “I am a man of feeling,” he said on signing with the Dutch side, one of the Eredivisie’s most prominent teams and title winners as recently as 2017-18.
Mario Gotze had a rebirth with PSV. He scored on his debut and also helped the team to break the unbeaten streak of Ajax in another match.
On 6 September 2021, Gotze signed a new contract with PSV, keeping him at the club until 2024.
