Borussia Dortmund and Germany defender Niklas Süle will retire at the end of the season, at the age of 30, when his contract with the German club runs out.
Süle said on the “Spielmacher” podcast that he made his decision after Dortmund took on Heidenheim in February, when he suffered a knee injury and feared it was an ACL tear — which would have been the third of his career.
“What I felt when our team doctor did the drawer test [a test used to check for a possible ligament tear] in the dressing room in Hoffenheim, 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 ten minutes. In that moment, I really thought: ‘It’s torn’,” Süle said.
“When I went for an MRI the next day and received the good news [that it wasn’t a cruciate ligament tear after all], it was one thousand per cent clear to me that it was over. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than looking forward to life — being independent, going on holiday, spending time with my children — only to then have to come to terms with my third cruciate ligament tear.”
Before joining Dortmund in 2022, Süle won five Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, as well as the Champions League in 2020. He has made 299 Bundesliga appearances in total and was capped by Germany 49 times.
With Dortmund, Süle narrowly missed out on the Bundesliga title in the 2022-23 season and in 2024, he reached the Champions League final with the club — which they lost to Real Madrid.
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“When I look back on my four years in Dortmund, there were so many moments I really enjoyed. The banter in the dressing room, the stadium — we’re talking about 80,000 people here. The fans always gave me a warm welcome. I’m going to miss that time very much. How at home I felt here,” Süle said.
“On my first day, I noticed what the people in Dortmund are like: open, warm, honest. I felt a huge connection with that. My children go to nursery here. It’s really hard for us to leave.”
