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Mario Götze on Eintracht Frankfurt: Shortly before the coup – sport

PSV Eindhoven started training for the new season at the start of the week, but Germany’s Roger Schmidt is now back in charge of a local – a compatriot of great fame who was greeted with much applause. The arrival of new coach Ruud van Nistelrooy, once the national team’s centre-forward, marks the end of an era in the club’s history: the age of the Germans at PSV is now history.

Schmidt, 55, announced his departure in winter and will start working for Benfica in a week. The German staff members are also leaving the club with him: his two assistants, the fitness coach, a physiotherapist and, in the further entourage, the substitute goalkeeper Vincent Müller (soon to be MSV Duisburg) and an employee who is actually still contractually bound, but from PSV during the first training session was released from duty with van Nistelrooy. Mario Götze, 30, was allowed to take the time to “round off” his move to Eintracht Frankfurt Telegraph reported. Official confirmation of harmony is still missing, but the success of the operation has not been questioned by any of the parties involved.

The rumor that Götze could join the Hessian European Cup winner came up at the end of last week, but by then it was more than just whispering. Götze had basically already made up his mind. Schmitt, like the assistant trainers Jens Wissing and Jörn Wolf and the fitness expert Yann-Benjamin Kugel, had wanted to take him to Portugal with him, and Götze was by no means averse to following his career savior. Discussions with Benfica took place, but Eintracht had already presented themselves as interested parties.

Manager Markus Krösche and trainer Oliver Glasner kept calm and stayed tuned when the prospects of the coup deteriorated in the meantime, and now Götze has actually decided to return to his cold homeland instead of an attractive engagement abroad. The American MLS had also lured him.

However, Eintracht does not have to spend financially: PSV’s compensation is fixed at four million euros, Götze’s salary is far from the double-digit million amounts that he received when he was with FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. In Eindhoven, he was by far the top earner with an annual fee of three million, in Frankfurt the dimension should be similar.

The alliance between Eintracht and the ex-Dortmunder is, in a way, a celebrity marriage, and therein lies perhaps the greatest risk of the venture. With the European Cup winner, everything is a size bigger than before, not necessarily in terms of sport, but in public perception. The fact that the DFL brought FC Bayern and Eintracht together on the evening of the season opening is not the result of a roll of the dice, but an attempt to create a bang that should not only be heard in Germany. And now the encounter also honors Mario Götze, once the top talent par excellence and forever the winning goal scorer in Rio de Janeiro 2014. First Sadio Mané and then Super Mario – that’s good news for Donata Hopfen, the DFL Managing Director. And perhaps, as is already being speculated everywhere, Hansi Flick is also happy that he can visit Götze practically on his doorstep. They have a decidedly good relationship from their times together with the national team.

Schmidt and the coaching team gave Götze special treatment

At this point it might be appropriate to go back two years in the history book. In the summer of 2020, Götze left his home club Borussia Dortmund in the most bleak way possible: Both sides had nothing more to say to each other, the contract expired without comment, and BVB expressly refrained from offering an extension. In Götze’s life, “priorities have shifted,” it said. Football is no longer where he belongs with a professional.

The surprise move to PSV should prove lucky career-wise. It wasn’t exactly foreseeable at first: It wasn’t at all the case that Götze was bursting with energy, lust and passion when he introduced himself in Eindhoven. He radiated “lostness in himself and in his cosmos,” contemporary witnesses say. Schmidt’s coaching staff gave him special treatment. Fitness coach Benny Kugel – he is also world champion with the DFB team – and physiotherapist Steffen Lutz provided, so it is said, “complete care”. The result can be seen in the playing times: In his second year at PSV he played 52 competitive games, 17 in the various European Cup matches alone. Twelve goals and eleven assists adorn his record. “Much clearer and tidier” recently experienced the colleagues in the club.

The prospect of the Champions League also plays a role

In the autumn of last year, Mario Götze also returned to the consultant Volker Struth, who looked after him at the beginning of his career and from whom he had parted quite melodramatically in the meantime. As is emphasized, he chose his next club entirely himself, the media expectations did not deter him. The prospect of the Champions League and the radiance of unity would have attracted him. As a potential playmaker in Frankfurt, he follows in the tradition of his great predecessors: from Jürgen Grabowski, Lajos Detari, Uwe Bein and Andy Möller to Daichi Kamada, who – as of now – will play alongside him.

In Eindhoven, people like to think back to the two years with Götze and the fading German period. The last remaining is Philipp Max, 28. Union Berlin is said to be trying to bring him home to the Bundesliga.

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