Mario Gotze (born 3 June 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and the Germany national team. Although his favoured position is that of a playmaker, Gotze has also played as a false nine or as an emergency striker.
He played for Borussia Dortmund between 2009 and 2013, winning the Bundesliga title in 2010–11 and the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double in 2011–12, and was a member of the team which reached the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final. In April 2013, a €37 million bid from Bayern Munich triggered a release clause in Gotze's contract, making him the second-most expensive German player at the time, behind Mesut ozil. He spent three seasons with the club where he won a further three league titles, two DFB-Pokal trophies and a winners' medal in each of the FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup. He then returned to Dortmund in 2016, where he added another DFB-Pokal title and a DFL-Supercup to his name.
Gotze was first selected for the Germany national football team in 2010, at the age of 18. He was included in the squad for UEFA Euro 2012 and, two years later, scored the winning goal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final.
Gotze is capable of playing as either a left or right winger, attacking midfielder and also as a "false 9". Gotze was considered to be one of the best young players in the world, possessing speed, technique, dribbling skills and playmaking capabilities. In his first stint at Dortmund, under manager Jürgen Klopp, Gotze often played different roles in the team's 4–2–3–1 formation. Following the departure of fellow playmaker Shinji Kagawa in 2012, during the 2012–13 season, Klopp assigned Gotze as central attacking midfielder. For Germany, Gotze's talent has been used by German coach Joachim Low in the "false 9" role. In more recent seasons with Dortmund, coach Lucien Favre has also used Gotze in this role.
In 2010, German Football Association's then-Technical Director Matthias Sammer described Gotze as "one of the best talents Germany has ever had." One year later, German football legend Franz Beckenbauer described Gotze as "German Messi" for his speed and style of play. However, Gotze's pace deteriorated before the peak age of an average professional footballer, and this was seen as one of the reasons for his second departure from Borussia Dortmund. |
