Growing old with Mario Götze
I just turned 26 and, for the first time, I feel like I’m pretty old now. Not old, maybe, but a proper adult. People just a few years older than me might scoff at the idea of being ‘old’ at 26. Personally, just a few years ago, I felt someone in their mid-20s was probably pretty firmly into adulthood.
This is where I’m tempted to say the truth is somewhere in the middle but, actually, I don’t think that’s really true. People’s lives accelerate and decelerate, and hit different milestones, at different times.
Some people at 26 already have stable family lives, they’re miles along in their careers, their life seems, at least from the outside, all mapped out. Others still feel directionless, they haven’t established that same path, even if they wanted to. The cards just fall differently, opportunities do or don’t arise. Things do or don’t happen, because everyone is different and everyone’s experiences are unique.
My birthday also happened to coincide (give or take a few days) with the announcement that one-time football prodigy Mario Götze will leave Borussia Dortmund for free this summer.
He only turned 28 last week. But there’s no queue to sign him up. None of Europe’s top clubs are likely to be interested in the man who scored the winner in the World Cup final at the age of 22. Because he’s lost his pace, his peak, really, came as an adolescent.
https://twitter.com/squawka/status/1268138107020300288?s=21
The decision for Götze to leave Dortmund was described as one that “makes sense for both parties” by sporting director Michael Zorc and there are serious questions about what level of football the German can actually deliver at now. Here I expected to write that this has inevitably brought Götze’s career under the microscope, but the length of his perceived decline means that, actually, it hasn’t. A man who delivered Germany the World Cup six years ago is a free agent at 28 and nobody is really talking about it. Nobody really cares.
Firstly, to get it out of the way, Götze remains a superb talent. He isn’t quick, he won’t beat many players with the ball anymore, like he did when he emerged, and he doesn’t score many goals. But he is a facilitator and he is still top class when used properly. In fact, in the first half of 2019, he was arguably Dortmund’s best player. He led the line and outshone the likes of Reus and Sancho in the frontline as Dortmund relied on him heavily in the absence of Paco Alcácer.
In the last 18 games of the 2018/19 Bundesliga campaign, amidst the pressure of a tight title race, Götze managed a goal or assist every 105 minutes.
https://twitter.com/larspollmann/status/1099776955870789633?s=21
Which brings us to the real problem and the point here. Entering the final stage of his career, Götze is haunted by what he isn’t, rather than being lauded for what he is.
Used in the right way, he remains a world class footballer. Technically brilliant, incredibly intelligent. But he didn’t become the new Lionel Messi, he didn’t win the Ballon d’Or, he isn’t the face of Nike or the star at Bayern Munich.
Which has, understandably, all been painted as a disappointment. Because we love to dwell on what could have been, and what ought to have been, and all of our ultimately inaccurate predictions. Rather than looking at, and appreciating, and marvelling in what we do have.
Götze truly burst onto the scene as a teenager. He inspired Dortmund to a first Bundesliga title in seven years in 2010/11, missed much of the 2011/12 Double campaign though injury, then was crucial as Dortmund made their way to the 2013 Champions League final. Looking back, while he was by no means a failure at Bayern Munich, those early years at Dortmund were the finest of his career. His ‘peak’. A word we are all so obsessed with.
By 24 he was back at BVB but he already wasn’t the same player, the same physical attributes, as before. He’d learnt plenty but he’d lost a lot too and that meant changing his natural game. A rare metabolic illness that had an impact on the midfielder’s weight, fitness levels and training regime was finally diagnosed in March 2017. He missed almost half a year as he adjusted.
https://twitter.com/lgambrose/status/1264184820604776448?s=21
That he hasn’t played for Germany since 2017 (and just once since 2016) is Jogi Löw’s bad call much more than it is a fair reflection of Götze’s form. Especially when the likes of Mario Gomez, Luca Waldschmidt, Amin Younes, Sandro Wagner have been called up in the meantime and had little to no positive impact.
But, like BVB, Germany have moved on. That doesn’t mean Götze is finished, as people like to say, and it doesn’t mean he failed to get more out of his ability, a statement that assumes he a) didn’t get enough and b) easily could have got more out of his abilities.
Despite his athletic decline, one that illness has almost certainly contributed to, he’s managed to change his game. His 2019 form was all the proof anyone should ever need that his quality remains.
Wherever he ends up next, Götze simply has to be used properly, in a way that suits him and the team. If that happens, he can continue to be incredible valuable at the very highest level.
Footballers’ careers, like people’s actual lives, develop differently, they don’t share the same tempo, the same rhythm, the same patterns. But, like in life, we look at players through a lens that implies these things should be linear. Anything else is considered a let down. Some players peak at 21 and that’s fine too. The disappointment is understandable, the ridicule isn’t. Mario Götze isn’t the same player he was, but his time at the top doesn’t have to be over just yet.
