Ex-national player Kruse ends his career: football is “done”

Coaching career excluded

Former national player Max Kruse has announced the end of his career. The former Bundesliga professional let it be known on Instagram that the decision was not easy for him, but that he would now start a new phase of his life. The 35-year-old explained that football was “over and done with” for him. But he will never turn his back on sport.

Kruse also emphasized that he would not work as a coach, but that they could still see each other again in football at some point. The offensive player, who was born near Hamburg, played more games for no club than FC St. Pauli, with whom he was promoted to the Bundesliga in 2010. After the Brown-Whites were directly relegated, Kruse initially stayed in the neighborhood and helped with strong performance data in the almost re-promotion, which they narrowly missed. Kruse nevertheless became first-class and was active at Freiburg, Gladbach and Wolfsburg before returning to SV Werder Bremen in 2016. There the Reinbeker made the jump to the professionals in 2007. According to the club, he will be part of the traditional team there in the future.

His last club, after he was on the pitch at Fenerbahce, 1. FC Union Berlin and again at VfL Wolfsburg, was SC Paderborn in a short-term engagement. Kruse played 14 times for the German national team between 2013 and 2015.

Max Kruse’s performance data per team: Werder, Wolfsburg, national team & Co.

100 games for FC St. Pauli (2009 to 2012)

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22 goals, 16 assists
*Note: Clubs listed according to the number of Kruse’s appearances. Only the clubs’ first team is taken into account.

94 games for Werder Bremen (2007 to 2009 & 2016 to 2019)

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35 goals, 31 assists

77 games for Borussia Mönchengladbach (2013 to 2015)

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24 goals, 22 assists

62 games for VfL Wolfsburg (2015 to 2016 & 2022)

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16 goals, 13 assists

45 games for Union Berlin (2020 to 2022)

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19 goals, 12 assists

39 games for SC Freiburg (2012 to 2013)

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12 goals, 10 assists

23 games for Fenerbahce (2019 to 2020)

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7 goals, 8 assists

5 games for SC Paderborn (2023)

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no goal, one assist

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