Dortmund star on route to Munich
It
was announced today that Bayern Munich have clinched the surprise signing of
Borussia Dortmund starlet Mario Götze for £32m (37m
euros), a record fee for a German player, eclipsing the amount paid by Bayern
for striker Mario Gomez.
There’s been much speculation surrounding the future of the
attacking midfielder/winger for quite some time, but it was widely expected
that he’d see out at least another season in Dortmund colours after this
current campaign.
All that changed immediately after his club’s advancement over
Malaga in the last round of the Champions League, according to Borussia head
coach Jürgen Klopp, who says he knew of the intention to make the move to
Munich happen only the day after the victory over the Andalucians.
The Bavarian giants put forward an offer that triggered the
minimum release clause in Götze’s contract and, despite strong reservations
from Dortmund about letting him go to a major rival, the player and his
advisors were well within their rights to agree to a move to any club that met
the required amount of money that the clause stipulated.
The young midfield player made his full debut at Borussia as a
17-year-old and has twice lifted the Bundesliga title with the club he joined
aged eight. Now, this season’s runaway German league champions from Munich have
pounced for a player regarded as one of the most special talents in Europe.
With Bayern preparing the nest for their new coach Pep
Guardiola’s arrival in the summer, the club’s hierarchy envisaged Götze as an
ideal addition to an already impressive squad. It’s a tactic regularly used in
the past by Bayern to improve their own squad while weakening those of their closest
rivals and creating a super-team of sorts by cherry-picking top German talent;
they’ve certainly captured one of the very best in the form of Götze.
Guardiola will no doubt be very pleased with Bayern’s
acquisition of the German international, but Borussia probably less so (!),
especially considering the Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid is on
the horizon.
It remains to be seen whether the sensational move has any
impact on Dortmund’s preparations or the player himself when Ronaldo and
company roll into town.
Twitter: @davewh1980
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