After Marco Reus has already announced his departure from Borussia Dortmund, the Bundesliga club could lose another club icon in the summer of Mats Hummels. The defender’s contract expires.
One day before the semi-final second leg of the Champions League at Paris Saint-Germain (first leg 1-0), Hummels once again emphasized that he is in no rush to make a decision about his sporting future. “I want to decide this very late. The club agreed to that,” said the defense chief before the final training session.
Two titles are still missing from Hummels’ collection
As a multiple German champion and cup winner with BVB and Bayern Munich and world champion in 2014, the 35-year-old no longer has much to prove in terms of sport, but he still has two big goals that currently make his contract, which expires in the summer, seem secondary: he wants his with Dortmund celebrate his first triumph in the premier class and add the last title that is still missing from his collection at the home European Championship in the summer.
When and how he decides about his sporting future will depend, in addition to the signals from his body, primarily on private things: “Then the private is another issue. That I take my son into consideration, who goes to school in the summer. It’s me “It’s important that this can be agreed upon,” said Hummels on Monday.
Hummels wants to take Mbappe out of the game again
If he does not agree on further cooperation with Dortmund, BVB would lose another professional after Marco Reus who enjoys cult status among fans. Attacker Reus announced last Friday that he would be leaving Borussia next summer after a total of over 21 years. For Hummels, if he left in the summer, it would be fewer years, but with more than 500 games, more competitive games at BVB.
Before he packs his son’s school bag, his focus is now on sports. After the 1-0 first leg win against the star ensemble from Paris, Hummels wants to take their star striker Kylian Mbappe out of the game on Tuesday. “That will be the main task again,” says the BVB central defender.
Because once he’s gone, he’s gone.
Mats Hummels on Kylian Mbappe
Enjoy and seize the opportunity
This task will be difficult enough: “This is something that can only be done together, only as a team.” Mbappe is “very, very difficult to defend with this inimitable pace” for just one player alone. The best thing we can do is prevent the ball from getting to him. But as it is, there are a lot of good players around, that’s just one Part of the whole.”
Apart from two hits on the post, Dortmund managed quite well to keep Mbappe and his teammates away from their own goal in the first leg. Now it’s time to be “wide awake for 90 minutes” again in order to fulfill the dream of the final at London’s Wembley Stadium (June 1st).
With a triumph in London, Hummels could fill the penultimate gap in his trophy cabinet before the European Championships begin on June 14th. Hummels, who lost the Champions League final against Bayern Munich (1:2) in 2013, doesn’t have that in mind yet. Now only Paris counts: “You have to enjoy it and seize the opportunity at the same time.” So the contract and the school bag have to wait a little longer.
