Injuries, a wrong move and a frosty relationship with the German people, why Gotze can overcome these obstacles

“Wunderkind,” “One of the greatest talents we have ever had” and a “once in a century talent” are just a few plaudits Mario Gotze has received over the last few years.

Those plaudits respectively came from Germany Manager Joachim Low, German World Cup Winner Matthias Sammer and experienced manager Felix Magath.

At the time, the young attacking midfielder was one of the most sought-after talents in world football and he seemed to have the world at his feet.

To give everyone an idea of how good he was, Pep Guardiola made him one of his first signings when he took over the reins at Bayern Munich. However, the last few years have been a roller coaster ride for the now 25-year old midfielder.

Despite scoring the winning goal in the World Cup Final 2014 and winning five Bundesliga titles, the lack of universal regard suggests that the now 25-year old may have become a victim of his own hype and recent success. But what has gone wrong for the 9th youngest debutant in the Bundesliga? A wrong move.

After resigning for Borussia Dortmund for £19.80 million in 2016, Gotze made it clear that he regretted his £33 million transfer to Bayern Munich in 2013.

The fact that Bayern were arguably Dortmund’s most hated rivals at the time made Mario Gotze a hated man, but the manner to which the transfer was finalised and revealed made him public enemy no.1.

Just a few days before Dortmund’s vital second leg tie against Real Madrid in the Champions League Semi Final, news broke out that Gotze would not be donning the yellow and black jersey of Borussia Dortmund in the 2013-14 season.

Many Dortmund fans still have not forgiven the 25-year old for this supposed act of treason, meaning he had to endure several boos and jeers from his own fans at the Signal Iduna Park. A bad start. A debilitating muscle disease limited the world cup winner to just 16 starts in his first full season back at BVB.

With just two goals and two assists, not to mention his lack of appearances due to his sickness, Gotze fell out of favour with Dortmund fans, who were missing Henrikh Mkhitaryan who left to join Manchester United that season.

Despite not being as prolific as he was in his first stint at BVB, Gotze is playing more games now and even score against Hamburger in their most recent game. If he can keep getting some more games under his belt, then form and confidence should come back quickly.

He is still a young player at 25-years old, so there is still time to fulfill some of the potentials that so many people expected when he was younger. Negative media Publicity.

Gotze did not get off to the best of starts at Bayern Munich.His mistake was unfortunate at the least, but highly embarrassing at the worst. In his unveiling at a press conference, Bayern’s new golden boy, their new star man caused shockwaves when he turned up to the unveiling wearing a Nike T-Shirt.

Adidas were left extremely bemused as they owned a 9% stake in the German Champions and they released a statement which said, “ The pictures taken at the Mario Götze press conference have surprised us, negatively. Contractually it is not allowed: this was an official function of Adidas partners Bayern.”

Gotze at the time was personally sponsored by Nike, so it would have been wrong to say that his actions were malicious in any sort of way.

However, die-hard Bayern Munich fans took negatively to this news, and believed that their club had just spent £33 million on a young talent who only had his personal sponsors at the forefront of his mind and therefore; did not take into account his new team.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? It will take a lot for the Dortmund faithful to forgive their young prodigy, but Dortmund got a hefty profit from the 25-year old so Dortmund have not financially lost anything.

They also made a profit on his replacement at the time who was Henrikh Mkhitaryan so it would be unwise to say that Dortmund has not benefitted. Football fans can forgive their players if they contribute impressively to the team.

If Gotze can build on his goal against Hamburg recently, then it will be a matter of time until the Dortmund faithful starts feeling good about him again.