Ten years ago today, on April 23, 2013, news came as a surprise to the whole of football Germany: Mario Götze switched from BVB to FC Bayern Munich. A chronological review.
Back then, Mario Götze was the shooting star of Borussia Dortmund. BVB won the championship in 2011 and added the double a year later.
Götze made a significant contribution to this with 39 goals in 67 competitive games. In the following season 2012/2013, the Westphalians made a sensational entry into the final of the Champions League. On the way there, the news burst in that Götze was moving to his rival in Munich.
We recap the events that lingered for a long time – and that Götze would regret years later.
March 27, 2012
The reigning champions from Dortmund are at the top of the table with a five-point lead over FC Bayern. Top performer Götze has extended his contract early until 2016. Even then, he was said to have received offers from top European clubs.
“Everyone knows how comfortable I feel in Dortmund,” said Götze. That’s why it wasn’t difficult for him to extend the contract with BVB now. The team is far from finished with their development, said Götze: “And I want to be part of this development.”
December 15, 2012
In an interview with the Bpic on Sunday the then 20-year-old was asked whether a move to FC Bayern was conceivable for him. Götze’s answer: “Honestly, I don’t see any reason to deal with a change. Since I came to BVB when I was young, I’ve never really dealt with it. I have everything I need here and I even want one now Build a house in Dortmund because I feel so comfortable in the city.”
January 8, 2013
Götze does not rule out staying at BVB until the end of his career: “I can imagine that. I grew up in Dortmund, feel very comfortable in the city, have friends and family there. All of this speaks for Dortmund and BVB,” said he international in an interview with the WAZ.
However, the future will have to show whether that will happen, he added: “First of all, my contract runs until 2016, so there is absolutely no reason to think about anything else.” At that time, Götze had played 70 Bundesliga games for Borussia and scored 18 goals.
January 16, 2013
Shortly before the start of the second half of the season, FC Bayern announces that Pep Guardiola will succeed 67-year-old Jupp Heynckes. The Spaniard received a three-year contract in Munich until 2016.
At this point, Bayern are leading the table with a nine-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen. Dortmund is third and twelve points behind FCB.
February 2013
As Götze’s advisor Volker Struth writes in his book “Meine Spielzüge. From the coal settlement to the most successful player advisor in Germany”, which was published at the end of 2021, Matthias Sammer, as the then Munich sports director, got the ball rolling when it came to the Götze transfer.
“Matthias Sammer called and his first sentence sounded like he just wanted to have coffee with me. ‘Volker, could you imagine us sitting down?’ He said. And then: ‘I’d like to talk about it Mario talking to you.'” writes Struth.
March 2013
Thanks to Struth’s book, the further course of events can now be documented, of which the public of course knew nothing at the time. The name Guardiola “made you blind”, writes the consultant. Götze wants to change.
Struth informs BVB sports director Michael Zorc, who answered the phone “completely unprepared”. “Michael, I have to tell you something. Mario decided to move to Munich in the summer. We’ll pull the opt-out clause,” says Struth.
Silence follows, then Zorc says he’ll call back in five minutes. As he does so, according to Struth, here’s what happens: “He threw at me all the insults that the German language has produced, one after the other, for minutes. I said just one sentence: ‘I can understand your anger, but I can don’t change it.'”
The next day, Struth’s cell phone rings again, and Zorc is on the line again in a “playfully factual” voice. “There’s a state of shock here. We have to meet, all together,” says Zorc. Shortly thereafter, there is a round of elephants in a Dortmund restaurant.
“I found myself hoping that Klopp would persuade the boy to stay,” writes Struth. But Götze made it unmistakably clear: “I would like to experience playing for Guardiola. That doesn’t mean that anything bothers me in Dortmund. I just know that this is an opportunity that will never come again and that I want to take advantage of.”
Finally, the meeting became emotional when the “Dortmund delegation realized that all their courtship and wooing was in vain,” says Struth. At BVB they believe it is the consultant who instructed Götze what he has to say. “I got that, Mario, I’m just not a Guardiola,” says Klopp.
April 23, 2013
Shortly after midnight, the Picturethat Götze will go to Bayern on July 1st. The sports media are falling over themselves. According to the tabloid, the Dortmunder has already signed the contract. The change comes about thanks to an exit clause in the amount of 37 million euros.
On the same evening, FC Bayern plays FC Barcelona at home in the semi-finals of the Champions League (FCB wins 4-0), BVB is up against Real Madrid the next day. This constellation also causes great explosiveness.
However, the speculation about Götze did not last long, because Borussia confirmed the transfer on the same day. “Of course we are extremely disappointed, but we emphasize that both Mario and his agent behaved in accordance with the contract,” says BVB Managing Director Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Götze and advisor Struth had informed the club that Götze would like to make use of his exit clause. From FC Bayern, on the other hand, “no official has contacted Borussia Dortmund on this matter to this day”.
This was also confirmed by Watzke’s then opposite Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in October 2019. He “understood that they were completely angry,” said Rummenigge in a contribution to Watzke’s biography. “After all, we didn’t contact them at the time because that was what Mario’s agent wanted. Everything should be kept under wraps. The whole transfer was supposed to remain secret until the end of the season.”
In addition to BVB, the German record champions also issued a statement on April 23: “FC Bayern is ready to fulfill the exit clause agreed between Borussia Dortmund and Mario Götze.” The transfer fee of 37 million euros makes Götze the most expensive player to have ever switched from one Bundesliga club to another.
However, one thing is clear: Announcing the transfer in this way was anything but planned. To this day it is not clear how Bpic got wind of it beforehand. The FCB press release states that the Munich team wanted to “only report the change to BVB after this encounter” out of consideration for Dortmund’s upcoming CL game.
After the transfer became known, Borussia’s share price fell by around four percent. “Together with coach Jürgen Klopp, sports director Michael Zorc asks all BVB fans to support Mario Götze in the last games of the season, but especially in the important UEFA Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, just as unconditionally as any other Dortmund professional.” can also be read in the official announcement of the Westphalia.
But that’s not all: On the afternoon of April 23, a few hours after the announcement, BVB held the press conference before the duel with Real Madrid. There Klopp turns to the very end with an appeal to the BVB fans: “Let’s do a very special, a special, a BVB evening tomorrow and win against Real Madrid.”
It is questionable at this point whether this will succeed or whether Götze will face a real gauntlet run. Dozens of insults can be read on his Facebook posts, and pictures of burning BVB jerseys with the number 10 on the back are also circulating on the Internet.
In May 2019, Götze looks back in a post for The Players Tribune on the circumstances surrounding the announcement of the change: “I had decided to leave, but I didn’t understand the consequences. A few weeks later, the police were outside my parents’ house to protect us.”
And further: “I could handle it. But my younger brother was 14 and was put in school. People said things to my mother. My family was threatened on the internet. It was incredible to go through it, especially because this was our home . I had to move away in the summer, but my family had to stay in Dortmund, live there. That was the hardest time in our lives.”
April 24, 2013
Klopp’s speech on the PK is having an effect. Dortmund beat Real sensationally 4-1 with four goals from Robert Lewandowski. Götze plays from the start, is hardly booed, prepares the 1-0 and delivers a convincing performance.
However: The game is Götze’s (for the time being) last game in black and yellow. Muscle injuries slow him down for the rest of the season. As a result, he also misses the CL final against his future employer from Munich, which BVB loses 2-1.
July, 1st 2013
On Götze’s first day at work, an interview with him appears on the Bayern club website. In it he describes the move to FCB as absolutely the right decision. “I wanted it that way – out of conviction. I want to take the next step in my career at Bayern Munich,” said Götze. He is now “at the best club in the world”.
Incidentally, Götze completes his medical check in the strictest secrecy, as knee specialist Dr. Peter Boenisch reveals years later. The investigation took place in Augsburg. “When he was examined by us, there was the highest alert level. We distributed hats, used back entrances, pure discretion. We blocked everything here for two hours,” said Boenisch Augsburg General.
July 21, 2016
After three years in Munich, during which he won the German championship three times and won the cup twice, and shot Germany to the World Cup title in a DFB jersey, Götze returned to Dortmund. “When I switched from BVB to Bayern Munich in 2013,” says Götze, “it was a conscious decision that I don’t want to hide behind today.”
Still, looking back, he sees them as mistakes. “Three years later and now at the age of 24, I look at my decision at the time with different eyes. I can well understand that many fans could not understand my decision. I would not make them like that today either!”
