Marco Reus is just one game away from lifting the Champions League for the perfect farewell to his incredible Borussia Dortmund career.
Idolised by everyone in yellow and black, Reus is the ultimate epitome of Dortmund. Born just a stone’s throw away from the Westfalenstadion, he’s lived the dream of those he grew up around – for many he is Mr BVB.
“Dortmund means everything to me,” he told UEFA on the eve of his goodbye to the club. It’s Wembley again for Reus and Dortmund 11 years on from heartbreak against Bayern Munich, and the perfect curtain call beckons.
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It hasn’t always gone according to the script in Reus’ career with his journey witnessing as much heartbreak as anyone.
Released by his boyhood club as a teenager, Reus’ route back to the top of football has been nothing short of inspiration. The German joined Rot Weiss Ahlen in the third tier before guiding the minnows to promotion to 2. Bundesliga, catching the eye of Borussia Monchengladbach.
What do you make of Marco Reus’ career? Let us know in the comments section.
(Image: Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
Reus’ form inspired the two-time UEFA Cup winners back to Europe’s elite competition for the first time since 1978 when they were knocked out by eventual winners Liverpool in the semi-final of the European Cup, after losing the final to England’s most dominant side at the time the season prior.
Then the offer from Jurgen Klopp and the Bundesliga champions came as he headed home to Dortmund – despite agreeing the deal in January 2012, he never arrived until June 2012, only weeks after Dortmund won their most recent league title.
Just 11 months later, Reus found himself dancing in the Santiago Bernabeu alongside Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze, Mats Hummels and Ilkay Gundogan having triumphed in the semi-final against the most successful club in European history.
(Image: Getty Images)
Though Dortmund had finished a chasm behind Bayern in the league and lost the DFB-Pokal final days before to their rivals, the Champions League final gave Reus the chance to join his team-mates in the history books to add the crown onto their recent domestic success.
Arjen Robben shattered BVB’s dream of lifting their second Champions League title as he rolled his 89th minute effort past Roman Weidenfeller to see Bayern complete the treble and return themselves to the summit of German and European football.
The final was a sign of things to come, the Bavarians rubbed salt into the wounds as Gotze left for the Allianz Arena immediately after, while Lewandowski and Hummels both headed to Munich in 2014 and 2016 respectively, reuniting with the Bundesliga trophy.
(Image: GETTY)
Despite interest from Bayern, as well as nearly of all Europe’s elite clubs, Reus rejected the chance to abandon his home. “Playing for a club for 12 years, it has to mean something,” Reus said. “You don’t stay just because of the name or the money. You need to feel comfortable.
“The fans play a huge role as well. Leaving means knowing you won’t find the same elsewhere, so you think two or three times before making such a decision. The fans are a big part of why I stayed so long, but also because I always felt needed here – that is an important factor.”
Seeing his friends’ success in Munich after yet more final heartbreak in the 2015 and 2016 DFB-Pokal final, Reus must’ve thought his moment in the sun would never come after injury had stopped him from being crowned a world champion with Germany at the 2014 World Cup.
(Image: Bongarts/Getty Images)
A new Dortmund rose in the wake of Klopp’s exit in 2015 as Thomas Tuchel led the club back to success with the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Christian Pulisic and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looking like a club reborn.
Five years after returning home, Reus finally won his first silverware at BVB, but he was substituted off at half-time in the final having sustained a partial tear of his ACL as Dortmund went on to defeat Eintracht Frankfurt to lift the 2017 DFB-Pokal.
However, another false dawn kicked his career again – Tuchel was dismissed by the club just three days later due to a strained relationship with the board, and following him out the exit door in the coming years went the spine of the cup-winning team.
(Image: Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
Yet one constant always remained, and he was made club captain in 2018 as BVB agonisingly missed out on the title by two points in 2019.
But the moment he’d been waiting for his entire life was to come in 2021 as he led Dortmund to Pokal glory, with Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland both scoring a brace in a 4-1 demolition of RB Leipzig. Following years of anguish, Reus finally etched his name into history as he lifted the cup as captain.
Bidding farewell to the Yellow Wall after scoring a wonderful free-kick in his final game at the Westfalenstadion as a Dortmund player. Reus never lifted the Bundesliga that his service and loyalty to the club deserved, though lifting football’s biggest prize would bring a tear to the eye of even football’s toughest fans.
(Image: Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
“I would say there is nothing better than playing your last game in a Champions League final and winning it,” Reus said. “Starting with a Champions League final at Wembley in 2013 and finishing with one in 2024 for your last game; there are worse ways to end a Dortmund career.”
Summing up the end, Reus concluded: “There was no reason to do things differently or not to be loyal to the club. It was worth making all the sacrifices. Pulling through, sticking at it, never giving up and always staying positive.”