Long-term Chelsea target Mario Gotze will leave Borussia Dortmund at the end of his contract this summer, the Bundesliga club have confirmed.
Gotze was once heralded as the next big thing in football when he burst onto the scene a decade ago, and seemingly had the world at his feet when he left for Bayern Munich and helped Germany win the World Cup back in 2014.
However, the World Cup winner ha struggled to perform at the level that so many have tipped him to become and rejoined Dortmund just a few years ago in a bid to try and get his career back on track.
But Gotze has struggled for game time at Dortmund this season and has only featured in 20 games for the German side, scoring three times, and he will now be available on a free transfer. “We will part ways with Mario Gotze this summer,” Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc told Sky Germany.
“It was a mutual and respectful decision. Mario is a great man.” “He is a very good player who comes from our own youth system,” Zorc added. “But it is also in his spirit that he is looking for a new job. Maybe abroad.”
Look, Gotze may not be the same player he was back in 2014 and is seemingly done at the very top of the game, but if a top club takes a risk on trying to get him back to his best and offers him a contract, they could get him performing again.
He just needs a manager that believes that he can still produce at the top level, give him some confidence, something he has been lacking since he made that mega money move to Bayer. At 27 years old he still has a good few years in him and under Frank Lampard, he could get the game time he needs to reignite his career. He would come on a free deal, where is the risk in that?
🎙 Zorc prematch presser:
“We will part ways with Mario Götze this summer. It was a mutual and respectful decision. Mario is a great man.” pic.twitter.com/XHcvuRsOrQ
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) May 23, 2020