Niklas Süle Announces Retirement at 30 Due to Injury Concerns
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Niklas Süle confirmed his retirement at age 30, citing a knee injury scare against Hoffenheim
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The Borussia Dortmund defender missed 22 games this season
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He won the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2020 and five Bundesliga titles before joining Dortmund in 2022
Champions League winner and five-time Bundesliga champion Niklas Süle has announced his retirement at the age of 30 after an injury scare led him to reconsider his future.
The Borussia Dortmund and Germany defender is leaving soccer at the end of the season, when his contract at the club was already due to expire.
“I’m very, very clear about my decision,” Süle said on the Spielmacher podcast in an episode released Thursday. “Despite that, football has given me a huge amount and I had such a great, cool time that there’s pain in saying this.”
Süle has missed 22 games with various injuries this season and said a moment of clarity came after he hurt his knee in a game against Hoffenheim last month.
Süle said he “cried for 10 minutes” in the showers after the club doctor examined his knee and shook his head, leaving Süle to fear he’d sustained a third career ACL tear, meaning months of recovery.