WHY MARIO GÖTZE SHOULD LEAVE FC BAYERN MÜNCHEN

‘He doesn’t even have a bloody shot on target’ , ‘Who included this dumbass in the squad’, ‘Is he the next E. Hazard?’. Yes these are the same people who had said stuff like ‘WHAT A GOAL’, ’He’ll win the Ballon d’Or someday’, ‘He is the next Messi’. Oh What difference two years make!

Whilst at Bor. Dortmund Mario Gotze was a great young prospect who used to give defenders nightmares at FC Bayern he was little more than a bench warmer. Signed in 2013 by Bayern for around €37 million back then he was one of the most talented footballers in the world sighted as the ‘Next Messi’. Rumour was he left BvB to be under the then Bayern coach – Josep Guardiola. But he could not break into first team under him. He wouldn’t fit between the perfect partnership of Thomas Müller & Robert Lewandowski who remained surprisingly injury free or the dynamic duo consisting of Robben/Ribéry (known as ‘Robbery’) & D. Costa/Coman (known as CoCo). In his first season with FC Bayern he made 27 Bundesiga appearances scoring 10 & assisting 9. Though he was only involved in 4 goals in his 11 appearances for the Champions League. It seemed like a good star for the prospect at that time.

Things did start to get little worrying in his second season in which he made a total of 48 matches in all competition but was only involved in 12 goals, which by his standards seemed like a bit off. This season though due to injury and various other reason he was sidelined for the most part leading to only making 21 appearances in all competitions. Despite Pep Guardiola frequently vowing “I love Mario Gotze,” the departing Catalan could only really offer him tough love. Gotze started total of 84 of a possible 161 games under Guardiola, lasting the full 90 minutes only 43 times. He was hooked off early 41 times — almost once every four games.

Götze had a chance to prove himself first team material to now coach Carlo Ancelotti by performing at the Euro 2016 held in France. He started as a lone striker for Germany against Poland and Ukraine but failed to have an impact. As an important game against North Ireland was coming up he was shifted to the left flank replaced my Mario Gomez. While he seemed more comfortable in that position in what seems to be his natural position cutting lanes and dribbling past defenders he failed to make an impact either in that game. After that he was mostly benched and was bought on later as a substitute for most part of the tournament. While he does have 17 goals in 56 appearances for Germany he has failed to live up to the hype.

So before the summer transfer window of 2016 with only one year left on his contract it was speculated that he’d leave Bayern for a smaller club in order to have more first team action. These speculations were later put to rest as publicly stated by his agent that Mario is no looking at another club and the new coach Carlo Ancelotti has had talks with him reassuring him of his role at the club. FC Bayern have received bids from Liverpool FC and Spurs for the services of Mario Götze. Whilst he would certainly get more first team action and grow as a player in the ‘smaller’ clubs he persisting on staying at FC Bayern will surely stop him from being a better player. It is his own self esteem which is stopping him from becoming the best version of himself. For he could have been one of the finest players in the game is now simply a bench warmer and will probably stay at Bayern till his contract expires becoming a free agent next summer. If he has little sense kicked into him he may rejoin his old club Bor. Dortmund or may rejoin with his former mentor/Manager to get back being the player he was once. Only time will tell.