Friday 23 October 2020
Mario Götze has had a long period of suffering: he lost his luck at the top German clubs, but after taking a step back, he apparently finds it back in the second row. But he doesn’t want to stay there long.
No, Mario Götze’s disappointment with the defeat could no longer be seen when he went to the microphone after the annoying 1: 2 (1: 0) of his PSV Eindhoven against FC Granada. The 28-year-old had shot his new club in the lead shortly before the break, but then had to stay in the dressing room and watch the game go missing. It seems as if the 2014 world champion, who had left his career with the final whistle, is already indispensable for the 24-time Dutch champion. And that feels good for someone who didn’t find happiness at FC Bayern, then disappeared into insignificance at BVB and finally had to leave.
“The most important thing for every player is to have a certain level of importance for the team,” enthused Götze in an interview with RTL / ntv, tidy and optimistic about the new employment relationship, which only came about after the transfer period had ended. Of course he was “disappointed in the end because we didn’t get the three points”, after all it was “very important to win the first game at home and take three points”.
First European hit in 1499 days
For himself, however, things are now going well again, Götze had already scored in his first game in the Eredivisie, and now the next goal followed after a strong performance – the first on the international stage after exactly 1499 days. Götze last scored on September 14, 2016 for BVB against Legia Warsaw in the Champions League (6-0).
With PSV Eindhoven, Götze is initially only on the smaller stage for major European clubs: The Europa League, more is not possible at the moment. PSV Eindhoven 2020, that didn’t really fit together with the claims of the world champion from 2014. Of course, he wanted to win the Champions League with his new club, Götze announced when he was still looking for lean years without a contract after a subsequent use for a not entirely cheap, but also no longer sporting world champion.
The move to PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivisie, which is hardly competitive internationally, came as a bit of a surprise. Or? That would have to “judge others. For me it was the right step.” He has fun with football again, the trust of the coach – and the ambitions of the club and its new boss Roger Schmidt also go perfectly with their own.
The title in “four, five, six years”?
No, obviously you won’t be able to win the Champions League this season – “but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen in four, five, six years.” The fighting spirit of Mario Götze, who sat on the bench for a long time, sometimes in the stands, often simply standing on the sidelines, can be felt in the new environment. “Every footballer who plays in Europe wants to win the Champions League one day. It would be strange to say that I don’t want to achieve that anymore. That will last.”
The optimism is fueled by Roger Schmidt. The PSV Eindhoven coach was once responsible for Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga – and now the decisive factor for Götze’s new start in Eindhoven. Schmidt played a “very, very important role” in his decision, reported the 63-time international, “because he trusted me, because he told me what he was up to.”
At the ambitious, self-proclaimed “Big City Club” Hertha BSC, they had asked themselves right up to the end whether Götze suited the current situation in Berlin. Whether Hertha was strong enough “to catch such a player”, as Hertha coach Bruno Labbadia emphasized, before he answered himself a little helpless: “I can’t tell.” It could be that the Berliners are annoyed after three defeats in a row.
The fact that Götze was slowed down against Granada after a strong first half was not due to Schmidt. Götze explained that he had only trained with the team for two weeks and had already played two games. “I’m not at 100 percent, I can’t always go over 90 minutes. It still takes time, a week or two, until I have the full rhythm again.” The rhythm, it can carry Mario Götze, the important one, on. For the moment, a lot is good in Eindhoven, where everything can get even better. Moving from irrelevance back to the front row obviously feels good. “I am very, very happy that it worked,” said Götze.
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