Marius Wolf was on the sidelines at Borussia Dortmund for a long time – now the 26-year-old is suddenly important: Because Wolf is so variable and reliable that his coach can’t get past him.
Marius Wolf started his professional career at TSV 1860 Munich, so the young man knows exactly what it means to fight and suffer. And falling on your nose and then getting up again. It started seven years ago with Wolf and paid football, and since then he has played for six different clubs.
That’s a lot for a 26-year-old, some would say: too much. Too much fluctuation, too much volatility, too much inconstancy. In such cases, the ugly word of the wandering bird quickly gets around, but with Wolf the situation is completely different. The many changes and loans tell the story of a player who absolutely wants to bite through and who is pragmatic and indecent enough to try another path than that of the least resistance. And who also takes certain risks for this. Just like Wolf did at a very young age.
“I played A-Jugend in Munich and did an apprenticeship on the side. I broke it off because I said: ‘I’m so close, I want to focus one hundred percent on football for two years now.’ Even if I hadn’t made the leap back then, I would have been 19 years old and still have been able to finish my training, “Wolf recalled once Daily mirror.
Hanover as a low point and lesson
1860 Munich, Hanover 96, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Dortmund, Hertha BSC, 1. FC Cologne and now Dortmund again: These are Wolf’s stations, peppered with highs and lows. Officially, he was part of the sixties team, which was passed from the second to the fourth league, although he was already playing in Hanover when the lions were relegated in the summer of 2016.
Wolf made his Bundesliga debut there, but was later eliminated from the licensed team and transferred back to the regional league. “That was not an easy time! But also the time in which I learned the most. In the life of a footballer, things not only go up, but also down every now and then. But then things can go up again very quickly go, you just can’t give up. It’s just the way it is in football, “says Wolf, looking back on his low point in Hanover.
Boateng: “If Marius Wolf doesn’t become a national player, I’ll quit!”
The move to Frankfurt was something like one last chance and, in retrospect, like winning the lottery. There, Wolf met Kevin-Prince Boateng, among others, who directed the youngster and who in the end said almost effusively: “If Marius Wolf doesn’t become a national player, I’ll quit!”
As is well known, Boateng still plays football, but Wolf has not yet made it to the national team. After all, his great love Borussia Dortmund got him, also such a complicated liaison: In Dortmund, no coach could assert himself. Now there are players who simply sit out periods of drought, on the bench or in the stands. Those who continue to earn good money and hope for the next change of coach and thus a new chance. But Marius Wolf never wanted to wait – he wanted to play.
So it went to Hertha and then without further ado to Cologne. “It’s the football business. Some stay longer in one place, others don’t. I always find my way around quickly. It has always worked out well so far,” said Wolf last autumn after moving to FC.
Wolf seems to have really arrived in Dortmund
Since this summer he has been back in Dortmund and was allowed to stay there. Because coach Marco Rose emphasized “that we will need everyone in the many games.” At that time Rose could not yet know how quickly this conjecture, which is often used as a standing sentence, would come true. The Borussia are suffering almost mysteriously many muscle injuries, almost a complete team was missing in the last few weeks. In the cup game against Ingolstadt there were nine players, so the alleged bench press automatically moved up. Even those for whom they recently had no use in Dortmund.
Wolf’s return after two years in sporting exile was accompanied by more skepticism than anticipation for the player. But after almost a third of the season it can be said that the pure follower has become an important, perhaps even central, part of the team. Marius Wolf is Dortmund’s all-purpose weapon that always helps out where the need is particularly great. “I have already emphasized several times that Marius deserved these opportunities,” said sports director Michael Zorc about Wolf, who is only really arriving in Dortmund these days.
Variability as a big trump card
Wolf played on the right wing and in the right midfield. He was nominated by Rose as a right defender and against FC Augsburg on the left offensive flank. And the nice thing from Dortmund’s point of view: Marius Wolf could easily play in both half positions in midfield or as a left full-back. With the exception of the central defender and center forward, Wolf can be expected in every field player position.
Wolf is characterized by the mixture of hard work, assertiveness and the overused concept of mentality. He’s not a particularly filigree footballer and not one who collects rows of goals or assists or sets the big playful highlights. But Wolf can give his team a lot of energy, is valuable against and with the ball, plays absolutely reliably and is not too good for the dirty work that has to be done.
The variability he has acquired over the years is currently his greatest trump card and if you take the exposed position of BVB and the many positions that Wolf has already held within the team, there should be no better and more important role player in the Bundesliga at the moment than the 26 -Year-olds. It is these heroes, which have not been widely discussed, who provide the glue for the structure of a team. They make the spectacular players shine even more because they can take themselves back.
Perhaps things will change again in a few weeks, when one or the other player returns from an injury and Marco Rose no longer has to improvise so much. For the moment, however, the opportunity is there – and Marius Wolf is making better use of the opportunity than almost anyone else.
