Marco Reus has announced that he will be leaving Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season after 12 years with the club. The 34-year-old’s attacking midfielder’s career has been colored by many things but one stands above the others; loyalty. Reus has been with Dortmund since he signed for them in 2012 and it’s not for a lack of offers from bigger teams.
Marco Reus was born in Dortmund, North Rhine Westphalia and started his football career playing for his hometown club Post SV Dortmund. He subsequently joined the youth team of Borussia Dortmund where he played up until the U19 stage when he left Dortmund for Rot Weiss Ahlen’s youth team. His performance was so impressive that he broke into Ahlen’s first team and was playing in the third division of German football. He stayed with Weiss Ahlen until 2009 when he was signed by Borussia Monchengladbach to play in the German first division; the Bundesliga.
Borussia Dortmund signed him from Monchengladbach in 2012 and it’s been an amazing story ever since. Reus had been signed by his childhood club and could challenge for the title and guarantee him Champions League football, it was a match made in the stars. He helped them to reach the 2013 Champions League final which they lost to Bayern Munich and ever since then he has been fighting with Dortmund for title glory.
Reus has been very unfortunate with injuries missing over 200 games because of injuries throughout his career. He also missed the 2014 World Cup which Germany won and the 2022 World Cup because of injuries. Regardless of his injuries, he has achieved legendary status at the club. Reus has the second most goals for Dortmund in their history and the most Champions League goals for the club. He captained Dortmund from 2018 up till 2022 and has essentially become the face of the club.
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In an era where footballers jump ship, moving to better and bigger teams in search of title glory and better financial remuneration, Reus stayed at Dortmund and Dortmund has had more than their fair share of great talents leave the club for “greener pastures”. Robert Lewandowski, Aubameryang, Dembele, Götze, Erling Haaland, and even Jude Bellingham all started out from Dortmund and moved to bigger clubs but Reus stayed even when Dortmund weren’t playing their best football. The level of loyalty Reus has displayed to Dortmund over his career is at the same level as some famous club loyalists in football. He has come to be associated with Dortmund the way Francesco Totti was tied to Roma, Steven Gerrard with Liverpool, Paolo Maldini with AC Milan, and John Terry with Chelsea.
He has recorded some success with the club but has unfortunately never won the Bundesliga despite coming close many times. Most recently they lost out on the Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich on the last day of the 2022/2023 season when they drew at home. They needed a win to seal the title and they unfortunately drew, losing out on the title again. Through all these trials, Reus stayed with the club helping in every way he could.
In total, Reus has played 425 matches for Dortmund and scored 171 goals. He has won two DFB Pokal cups with the club in 2017 and 2019 as well as two DFL- Super Cups in 2013 and 2019. He has been nominated for every Bundesliga Team of the Year from 2012 to 2019 except in 2017. Reus won the Bundesliga Player of the Year award three times in 2012, 2014, and 2019 among a host of other personal awards and he achieved all this playing with Dortmund as they tried and failed year after year to break the Bayern Munich monopoly.
After a mutual agreement not to renew his contract with the club at the end of this season, Marco Reus will depart the club in the most beautiful way playing his last match for the club in the Champions League final against Real Madrid. If Dortmund wins the Champions League, it would be the perfect end to a beautiful story for Reus and Dortmund but this is football, not Disney and the endings are not always happy. Whatever happens at the final, Reus will leave Dortmund as a legend who has displayed incredible loyalty to the club in an era where it is rare.
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