"16 years, 418 games, 20,726 minutes, 56 goals, half a life. Patrick Herrmann, 33, said on Thursday on his Instagram account announcing his retirement at the end of the season. Although he is not a big name or inevitable main player of the team, and even the Bundesliga "substitute king" who is among the best in terms of substitutions and substitutions, in the era of fewer and fewer One-Club Men from the beginning, from Lars Stindl, Marcus Thuram, Florian Neuhaus, Luuk de Jong to the official website of the Bundesliga have left messages praising "Legende", which shows his lofty status in the "Pony Corps" team.
Patrick Herrmann has played 349 Bundesliga games for Borussia Mönchengladbach so far (the fourth-most in the club's history), of which only 39 have played 90 minutes, making him the Bundesliga record holder for the number of games he has not played a full game, 157 of which have been started but left off, and 153 have been substitutes (second only to Pizarro's 169). He has also tried to come on as a substitute in 36 consecutive league games, with only Bayern Munich striker Mathys Tel (38 games) having more.
Indeed, Patrick Herman's strengths and weaknesses are very distinct: he is fast on the dribble, and he runs very hard, but his physical strength is often not enough to support the whole game, so the peak of his international career is 8-10 years ago, when he was selected for the 30-man preliminary list for the 2014 World Cup only to be defeated, until he finally got two appearances in 2015. Since joining Borussia Mönchengladbach's youth team from Saarbrücken at the age of 17, Patrick Herrmann and Marco Reus escaped the relegation play-offs in the 2010/11 season, helped the team reach the 2015/16 Champions League group stage with Max Kreuzer and Granit Xhaka, and topped the Bundesliga table in the first half of 2019/20 with Lars Stindl, Marcus Thuram and Jonas Hoffmann. Weigel and others have experienced the chaos of changing coaches in recent seasons, and finally suffered from injuries, and announced their postseason retirement after only playing six games in the league this season.
Despite not being able to continue on the pitch, Patrick Herman will remain with Borussia Mönchengladbach in his new role, and is expected to step back into the background to join the management team, carrying on the fighting spirit of the No. 7 jersey. "Courage, will, loyalty, respect, teamwork, dedication – I promise that the Fohlenphilisophie will be with you for the rest of your life!"