Back in 2013, Borussia Dortmund travelled to Wembley for the Champions League Final against Bayern Munich. In the stands sat the injured Mario Gotze. It had been announced he was off to Bayern for £32million, making him the-then most expensive German player of all time.
That was understandable, given how central he had been to Dortmund’s run and the promise he’d shown under Jurgen Klopp. A bright future seemed to be around the corner. The four years that have followed have instead been something of a rollercoaster.
It has seen him scale the dizziest of heights when he scored the winning goal for Germany in the 2014 World Cup Final.
It is only now, under new Dortmund coach Peter Bosz, that Gotze has become a central figure at club level again. In between, he failed to shine in three years at Bayern with Pep Guardiola rarely trusting the attacking midfielder to start in the big games. Lengthy injury lay-offs didn’t help, neither in Munich nor on his return to Dortmund in 2016.
Gotze missed the second half of last season through a metabolic disorder but even before then, he was not a first-team regular for Thomas Tuchel. His body language spoke of a player low on confidence but that hasn’t been the case under Bosz this season.
“Mario is extraordinary, you don’t see many like him,” said the Dutchman after the 3-0 opening-day win over Wolfsburg. Gotze shone in that game and is happy about the trust Bosz has in him.
Gotze’s Dortmund breakthrough saw him play in the No10 role and under Bosz, he still plays centrally but now it’s just a little deeper. “Mario doesn’t want to play like Messi anymore,” said Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzke last month. “More like Iniesta.”
How he would love to enjoy the same consistency at club level that the Barcelona captain has enjoyed.
A good performance against Spurs on his return to Wembley would be another step in the right direction for Gotze.
