Niklas Süle announces retirement at 30 years old
Niklas Süle has confirmed that he will retire from professional football at the end of the season, once his contract with Borussia Dortmund has expired.
The 30-year-old defender made the announcement on the Spielmacher podcast.
Süle explained that he has been considering the option for a while, but he finally made the decision after he injured his knee against Hoffenheim in mid-April and feared it was a third cruciate ligament tear.
“What I felt when our doctor did the drawer test [used to check for a possible ligament tear] in the dressing room at Hoffenheim, when he looked at the physio and shook his head, and the physio did it too and didn’t feel any resistance either – I went into the shower and cried for 10 minutes. In that moment, I really thought it had torn.
“When I went for the MRI the next day and got the good news [that it wasn’t a cruciate ligament tear], it was a 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 holiday, spending time with my children – only to then have to come to terms with my third cruciate ligament tear.”
Watch: Some of Süle's Bundesliga highlights
Capped 49 times by Germany, Süle has played 299 games in the Bundesliga for Hoffenheim, Bayern Munich and Dortmund. He has lifted the Meisterschale five times and was part of Bayern’s treble-winning team in 2020.
Injuries – including two previous ACL tears – and subsequent fitness issues have hampered the big centre-back throughout his career since making his senior debut as a 17-year-old.
BVB head coach Niko Kovač said on Wednesday that they will use Thursday’s final training session to check if Süle is fit enough for the final home game of the season against Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday night. One more outing would take the 30-year-old to 300 Bundesliga appearances.
