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Dortmund defender Niklas Süle will end his active career after the season. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
With FC Bayern, he became champion five times and won the Champions League. Now Borussia Dortmund defender Niklas Süle is calling it quits. He made the decision after moments of anxiety about his knee.
Former national team player Niklas Süle has announced the end of his active career. "I would like to announce that I will end my career in the summer," said the 30-year-old Borussia Dortmund central defender on the "Spielmacher" podcast from "360Media".
Süle had been thinking about hanging up his boots for some time. The final decision was made after BVB's game in Hoffenheim, in which he injured his knee. After a test by the BVB doctor to determine a possible cruciate ligament rupture, things got emotional.
"What I felt when our doctor did the drawer test in the dressing room in Hoffenheim, looked at the physio and shook his head, the physio did it too and didn't notice any impact, I went into the shower and cried for ten minutes. In that situation, I really thought: "It's torn," Süle looked back on matchday 30 in the podcast.
"When I went for an MRI the next day and received the good news (that it wasn't a cruciate ligament tear after all), it was one thousand percent clear to me that it was over. I couldn't imagine anything worse than actually looking forward to the time afterwards - being independent, going on vacation, spending time with my children - but then having to come to terms with my third cruciate ligament rupture," said Süle, who has been repeatedly halted by injuries in his career.
BVB had previously announced that the club would not be renewing the defender's contract, which expires at the end of the season, after four years.
The 30-year-old Süle, who played a total of 49 international matches between 2016 and 2023, played his first professional years at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. He moved to FC Bayern for the 2017/18 season, with whom he became German champion five times, won the DFB Cup twice and also won the Champions League in 2020. Süle moved to BVB in the summer of 2022. Now his time in Dortmund is coming to an end.
07.05.2026, 08:41
