Football ex-national player
Prominent but unemployed
As of: 07:29 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
By Lukas Dombrowski, Yannick Hüber, Axel Hesse, Tobias Altschäffl
Shkodran Mustafi, world champion in 2014, is looking for a club
Source: dpa/Bernd Thissen
There are a lot of former German national players on the transfer market this winter. The professional footballers are all unemployed and therefore available for free. What Moustafi, Younes, Courses & Co. are up to.
Shkodran Mustafi (31) has already found a new employer, even if only on television. As a TV expert, the 2014 world champion will accompany the home European Championships next summer for “Magentasport”. As a professional footballer, he is currently without a club – like probably more former national players than ever before.
Mustafi, world champion teammate Jérôme Boateng (35), Karim Bellarabi (33), André Hahn (33), Marvin Plattenhardt (31), Amin Younes (30) and Nico Schulz (30) have a total of 135 international matches under their belt. In addition, Timo Horn (30), a regular Bundesliga goalkeeper for years (201 league appearances for Cologne), is looking for a place in goal.
They are all football millionaires, but they still want to know it again. “I’m in great shape and would like to play at the highest level for a few more years,” says Mustafi. He can imagine almost all professional leagues for his comeback. After a complicated heel spur operation in the summer, he has a private trainer ready and, like so many others, is hoping for the right club in the January transfer window.
also read
If Mustafi (240 first division appearances in Germany, England, Italy and Spain) doesn’t have anything new this winter, he would at least like to look for a club where he can stay fit as a training guest – like other unemployed professionals.
Boateng and Schulz have private construction sites
Take Boateng, for example: The 2020 treble winner has been training with his former club FC Bayern since the fall and wants to play until the summer of 2025. Because of the injury concerns in the FCB defense, a permanent commitment was also discussed at some point, but was then rejected. A conversation between his advisor and Heidenheim boss Holger Sanwald (56) did not result in a firm commitment. Now there should be a winter change.
also read
However, Boateng has a private construction site with the still open trial for bodily harm (which, however, will no longer take place during the current season). The same applies to BVB flop Nico Schulz (in 2019 he cost 25 million euros). Almost six months after his contract with BVB was terminated, the Dortmund public prosecutor’s office brought charges against the left-back. The reason: three cases of grievous bodily harm, which his ex-girlfriend has accused him of.
Like Boateng, dribbler Amin Younes keeps himself fit at a former club and is currently training in Gladbach’s second team. Borussia coach Gerardo Seoane (45) left the door open for a transfer at the start of the season, but nothing has happened since then. Ex-Bundesliga stars André Hahn (250 appearances, including for Augsburg) and Marvin Plattenhardt (239 games for Hertha) are also still waiting for the opportunity to prove themselves again. Hahn is working on rehab after cartilage damage. Plattenhardt said he still had “three to four good years” left, but also declined inquiries from abroad because the overall package wasn’t right.
Horn looks to the Netherlands
Ex-Cologne keeper Horn definitely doesn’t want to go to too low a level for his return, but is looking at the first league in Holland and Belgium, among other things. Ex-Leverkusen winger Karim Bellarabi (89 points scorer in the Bundesliga) had hoped in vain for a move to the USA in the summer, but after many injuries it is also conceivable that his career could end soon.
Max Kruse announces the end of his career
Former national player Max Kruse has announced the end of his career. Around four weeks after terminating his contract with SC Paderborn, the 35-year-old announced in a live video on Instagram that he was saying goodbye to sporting retirement.
Max Kruse had known about the unemployment problem for a long time and was without a club from November 2022 after leaving Wolfsburg. In the summer he tried again in the second division in Paderborn. However, the experiment ended after only five missions with the contract being terminated by both parties. Now he ended his career a few weeks later at the age of 15.
The example of Frankfurt’s Europa League winner Almamy Touré (27) shows how worth the wait. The defender signed with second division club 1. FC Kaiserslautern almost five months after his contract with Eintracht ended – and immediately became a regular player. A happy ending that the unemployed ex-DFB stars are also hoping for.
Here you will find content from third parties
In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
The text was written for the Sports Competence Center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in SPORT BILD.
