Eintracht Frankfurt is still on Champions League course. Mario Götze also really trumps again – and could be interesting for the 2026 World Cup.
In the top game on Saturday evening, Mario Götze – not for the first time this season – was the match winner for Eintracht Frankfurt, which defeated VfB Stuttgart 1-0. In the meantime, the former Dortmund and Münchner has achieved eight goal participation this season. Götze in Deutsche Bank Park was again able to pick up a big applause from the audience.
He stands out in several ways: At 1.76 meters, he is the smallest, at the same time the oldest field player in an otherwise very young Frankfurt team, which has been reinforced by many highly talented people in recent years.
“Mario is an incredibly important player for us. He hardly makes any mistakes,” said head coach Dino Toppmöller about his ten. So you could describe Götze’s entire career. Even if he started as a talented dribbler in the BVB jersey, Götze developed into a problem solver at the latest under Pep Guardiola near Bayern Munich – into a player with quick grasp and intelligent passports.
Physical problems and too high expectations of him difficult. He finally received a second chance abroad, at PSV in Eindhoven under the then head coach Roger Schmidt.
The time for the big stage, for a career à la Toni Kroos or İlkay Gündoğan seemed over. And realistically speaking, Götze is on the lawn exactly where he can most likely be a key player. With the departure of Omar Marmoush in winter, Frankfurt has lost an important multilingual leader. For example, Rasmus Kristensen or Arthur Theate now take responsibility. Götze, on the other hand, is primarily footballers and fewer loudspeakers.
In this role, he sometimes protrudes in the offensive midfield of Frankfurt. He is the one SGE professional who can most likely align something to a deep or deep-pressing series of defenses, but at the same time uses his teammates as a switching player with quick contacts and passes.
With all the game culture that has developed under Toppmöller, Frankfurt is still the strongest when it comes to attack via your own pressing. Götze can work in small -scale ball ownership systems, but stands out even more as a difference in a team like his current one.
Also because of his awareness, its final goal at the 2014 World Cup and the never fully fulfilled hopes, Götze is now associated with the national team. He completed his last international match in March 2023, at the World Cup in Qatar he was in the squad of Hansi Flick.
His successor Julian Nagelsmann will certainly appreciate Götze’s skills. With Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz, Germany naturally has two offensive midfielder who have a similar technical profile as Götze, but are a lot athletic and a decade younger.
However, with his experience, Götze could be a good addition to this duo, especially if Nagelsmann is not convinced of other options for the offensive midfield: Julian Brandt may have the talent, but he embodies the Dortmund inconsistency like almost no other. Club colleague Pascal Groß is more needed in the national team on the six position. And for Paul Wanner, who will one day complement Musiala and Wirtz in the national team, the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico could come a little too early. Although Götze and Wanner could also stand in the squad at the same time. So it is not excluded that, like 2022, a door for the 2014 world champion will open. Not as a key player, but as a helping hand.