bundesliga

Resurgent Leon Goretzka ready to go back to the future against boyhood club Bochum

08.03.2025

The Leon Goretzka renaissance continues at Bayern Munich, where he has fought his way back into Vincent Kompany's midfield and seemingly hit top form again. Next up for him is a special fixture as boyhood club Bochum come to the Allianz Arena this weekend.

The beginning of the 2024/25 campaign was a difficult time for Goretzka. For years, his spot in Bayern's midfield had seemed to be nailed on, but competition in the form of the developing Aleksandar Pavlović and new arrival João Palhinha left his position in the starting line-up - and even his future at the club - uncertain.

With just a single minute of action across the opening six Bundesliga matches that uncertainty grew and, having also missed out on Germany's UEFA Euro 2024 squad, Goretzka was left in the unfamiliar situation of being out in the cold for both club and country.

“I told him clearly that it would be difficult for him," said sporting director Max Eberl in September. "That’s our job. He’s behaving well, I really respect him as a person. Sometimes things can change."

Watch: Goretzka in resurgent form

Things would, but it would take time.

It was not until Matchday 10 in a 1-0 win away at St. Pauli that Goretzka made his first start of the season. Stepping into the team due to injuries to Palhinha and Pavlović, Bayern's No.8 seized his opportunity as he started five of the next eight league encounters, cementing his spot by bagging a brace against Wolfsburg in a 3-2 home win on Matchday 18.

Kompany said after Goretzka's match-winning efforts that, "He is a role model for the whole team". Captain Manuel Neuer added that the rest of the squad, "always supported him and knew his time would come." Goretzka has continued to drive forward since, featuring in all but one league game (due to injury), recently scoring his fourth of the season in Bayern's 3-1 victory over Stuttgart, and being preferred to Palhinha to start the crucial UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Bayer Leverkusen.

Watch: Stuttgart 1-3 Bayern Munich – highlights

“If you saw him in Stuttgart - not just because of the goal - but how much desire he had, how determined he was, I would consider extending Goretzka's contract if I were Bayern Munich,” former Bayern and Germany captain Lothar Matthäus said of the midfielder, who is out of contract in summer 2026.

“You need players like that in your team. Not just artists like (Florian) Wirtz and (Jamal) Musiala, but also those who do the dirty work at the back and win tackles. Bayern Munich are very well stocked in that respect.”

Next up in the Bundesliga for top-of-the-table Bayern is 16th-placed Bochum, which presents Goretzka, who turned 30 in February, with the opportunity to continue his impressive return to form against his boyhood club.

Leon Goretzka (r.) celebrates after scoring on his senior debut for Bochum in 2012. - imago sportfotodienst

Born in Bochum, he joined VfL's academy in 2001, at the age of six. There, he would spend his entire youth development and be awarded the gold Fritz Walter Medal in the U17 category in 2012. A month later, Goretzka he broke into the senior team, scoring on his professional debut.

Goretzka would go on to make 32 appearances for the Ruhr club in the 2012/13 season and, while still a teenager, he was one of the standout performers that year, helping Bochum to narrowly avoid relegation from Bundesliga 2.

Moving to Schalke in the summer of 2013 before making the switch to Bayern in 2018, Goretzka never forgot the love for his boyhood club, being spotted in the stands supporting Bochum in the first leg of their successful relegation play-off against Fortuna Düsseldorf at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

When asked in November 2023 about where he would end his career, finishing at Bayern or going abroad before retiring were presented as options only for Goretzka to add a third.

"Both are possible, as is ending my career in the Ruhrpott," said the Germany international, referring to the region of Germany where both Bochum and Schalke are situated. "But to answer the question, it's still much much too early."

He will have to park his future career plans and - above all - his love for his hometown club on Matchday 25, however, with both Bayern's and Goretzka's eyes firmly fixed on reclaiming the Bundesliga title.