Talk | In 12 years, Royce left Dort, and the "one person, one city" of football is almost extinct!

Talk

2024-05-06 17:49Published on the official account of the "Sports Talk" column of Tencent News and Sports in Beijing

Written by | Horsen

Edit | Xu Song

On the evening of May 3, Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga announced that Reus would leave the club at the end of the season.

It's leaving, not retiring.

This also means that Reuss, the yellow-black banner who has given everything to Dortmund for the past 12 years, will once again be "persuaded to score" by his beloved club, after all, he has failed to achieve his lifelong goals of the yellow-black team.

Even more stunningly, Borussia Dortmund beat Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of this season's Champions League semi-finals just three days ago and are expected to reach the final of the Champions League again since 2013 – at this delicate point in time, it is a bit confusing to announce that the spiritual leader of the team will be leaving the club next season.

For a while, whether it was at home or abroad, there was a voice of regret, and even many emotional fans couldn't help but ask:

"If even Reus can't die in Dortmund, who will believe in a football fairy tale of one man and one city?"

A not-so-dignified breakup

Who is Royce?

A native of Dortmund, he has been a diehard member of the Yellow and Black Army since he was a child, entered the Dortmund academy at the age of 7, failed to win the favor of Dortmund's first team at the age of 18, and had to debut from the red and white Allen team of the German Second Division, and two years later switched to the Bundesliga powerhouse Borussia Mönchengladbach and gradually showed his talent, and finally returned to Dortmund at the age of 23, and stayed for 12 years.

In the past 12 years, Reus's teammates have changed one after another, from Lewandowski and Gotze to Aubameyang, Dembele, then to Haaland, Sancho, and finally Bellingham.

Many harsh injuries failed to knock down the indomitable warrior.

From the quick knife on the wing when he first joined the team, step by step to the current frontcourt master, Reus has led Dortmund to rebuild again and again, and has always stood tall in the Bundesliga.

What a singing and crying story.

Sadly, Borussia Dortmund didn't like the script.

In fact, fans and friends who have been paying attention to the Bundesliga should not be surprised by the departure of Reuss, after all, Dortmund FC has a long history.

In order to save money, the club refused to give Lewandowski a high salary, and finally made the angry Lewandowski stay up until the end of the contract period, and defected to his sworn enemy Bayern on a free transfer.

There are also Hummers father and son, who were once heartbroken by Bayern, once released cruel words, announcing that they would not return to Bayern for the rest of their lives, but after a few rounds of dealing with the uniform team of Dortmund club, they were still shocked by the other party's picks and searches, and threw themselves at Bayern in anger.

How can such a club be an exception for Reuss?

After the strong rise of upstarts Brandt and Adeyemi last year, the "aging" Reus has gradually lost the favor of the head coach, has been reduced to a substitute many times, and even negotiated the last contract extension, both sides have been in a tug of war for a long time, so that the German media at the time speculated that Reuss may choose to go away to Saudi Arabia to pan for gold.

In the end, Reus chose to renew his contract, albeit at the cost of cutting his salary in half, with a one-year contract and even the captain's armband......

After the rift occurs, it is difficult to reunite after the broken mirror, and the two parties chose to break up a year later, which is naturally understandable, but it looks a little undignified.

Poor and frightened Dortmund

So, who is to blame? Dortmund, who is reluctant to pay for it?

Dortmund in the past was also the one who dared to burn money.

Who remembers the Dortmund trident at the beginning of the new millennium, Rosicky, Amoruso and Jankoller, which once swept the Bundesliga and pointed to the European stage with a whirlwind.

At that time, the club was full of ambition and a big stroke of the pen, not only binding the club to finance and becoming the first club to be listed in the Bundesliga, but also spending hundreds of millions of dollars on recruitment, renovating the stadium and exploring the global market.

As a result, with the bankruptcy of Kirsch, the largest broadcaster in the Bundesliga, the financial bubble of the Bundesliga was detonated, and Dortmund, which rushed to the front, also took the lead in entering the cold winter, the market value of the stock plunged, a large number of debt defaults, and the club was once on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the most difficult time, Dortmund could not even pay the debt of 2 million, and finally had to borrow money from the bitter enemy Bayern to get through the difficulties - which also became an eternal pain in the hearts of Dortmund people.

Since then, Dortmund club's business thinking has also changed from radical to conservative, and it is no longer willing to spend a lot of money to buy superstars, although the fantastic coach Klopp brought a brief revival to the club again, but this poor life also made Uncle Scum eventually leave the UK.

In the post-Klopp era, Dortmund FC seems to have completely abandoned the pursuit of its dreams, defining itself as a top star processing factory, using the promise of "high appearance + big stage + low cost departure" to attract a number of talented teenagers to join.

The most typical are the well-known Haaland, Dembele, Sancho and Bellingham.

And Reuss's biggest role is to carry the sedan chair for these talented teenagers, leave the most dazzling stage for them, and let them play their worth, so as to help Dortmund earn a transfer fee......

You can say that Dortmund has no ambition, or you can say that Reus is "PUA", but with another economic winter coming, look at Dortmund's sworn rival Schalke 04 - after losing the sponsorship of Russian gas, their economic situation has plummeted almost in a straight line, and they are already one step away from bankruptcy.

Dortmund, though stingy and undignified, at least survived and lived well.

It's just a survival strategy for small and medium-sized clubs.

One person, one city, a beautiful quality that gradually disappears

In the past, we celebrated the legends of Maldini, Totti, Ryan Giggs and Puyol as one of the most moving fairy tales in modern professional football.

But people have to learn to grow up, and gradually realize that the reason why people like fairy tales is probably because the stories in reality are not always as beautiful as fairy tales.

For example, the story of Royce does not always take place in poor small and medium-sized clubs, and the black-hearted villains are not only played by Dortmund.

AC Milan are proud of the loyalty of Baresi and Maldini, but they did not use any more dignified means than Borussia Dortmund do today.

Barcelona's Puyol legend is certainly moving, but who is to say that Messi can't end up with Barcelona in the end?

And Real Madrid, known as the best club in Europe, the galaxy battleship, Hierro, Raul, Cassie and Ramos have four captains in a row, and none of them can end up at the Bernabeu, is it a coincidence?

Let's admit it, loyalty has slowly become a luxury, and the number of players in one person and one city will only become fewer and fewer, and even gradually disappear from now on.

As a result, some fans began to lament that this materialistic society finally turned football into a tool of capital, and the club's business culture became more and more lacking in human flavor.

But if you think about it carefully, you will find that the extinction of one person and one city may be due to the collective decline of the moral standard of the football circle, but it should be considered an inevitable choice for the development of modern football.

A time that has long since changed

When did modern football start to take off?

In the past, a Newcastle kid might have only watched a superpowerhouse like Manchester United or Liverpool play two or three times a year, but more often than not, they would be in the local stadium, cheering on their home team.

Reus is like this, three generations of the family are loyal Dortmund fans, so even if they are repeatedly PUA by the club, they have no regrets despite nine deaths.

The same can be said of Shearer, who was not drafted by Newcastle in his hometown but turned down Manchester United's offer to return to Newcastle after Southampton and Blackburn Rovers made a name for himself – such is the power of feelings.

There are also Maldini and Bergomi of Milan, Puyol of Catalonia, Totti and De Rossi of Roma......

This simple feeling of "fighting for the hometown" is the most common belief drive in the fairy tales of one man and one city.

But with the advent of the era of TV broadcasting, even if you are far away in China, you can watch the games of Real Madrid, Bayern and Manchester City every week, although the support for the hometown team remains the same, but the special sense of belonging may have changed because of Mu Qiang when he was a child.

At least, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, the Belgian Eden Hazard and the Englishman Bellingham, all of whom have Real Madrid in common, have some explanations for themselves.

At the same time, the Internet age has brought another benefit to the club, which is to expand the scope of youth selection in a real sense to the whole world.

A typical example is the former Liverpool star Mane, as a Senegalese-born athlete, who was discovered by French clubs, and after traveling to the Austrian Premier League and the Premier League, he eventually became a Liverpool legend.

For Sadio Mane, Liverpool is certainly the most special one in his life, but that's all, once he needs to sacrifice his personal interests to satisfy the club, he lacks a sense of belonging, of course, he will choose to leave in style.

And this year, it looks like it's Salah's turn?

In business, who can refuse money

As modern football becomes faster and more competitive, players have to play more and more games each season, resulting in clubs demanding more and more from their players in all aspects.

In order to achieve better results, the club has to start trying to squeeze the potential of the team, which also makes it difficult for the veterans to survive.

Arsene Wenger, Arsenal's legendary coach, took the lead in introducing a discriminatory countermeasure against the fact that veterans over 30 can only renew their contracts once a year - this certainly allows the club to avoid many operational risks, but there is no doubt that such inhumane measures will not only hurt the feelings of meritorious veterans, but also make young players realize that the club is not their ideal home, and the only person they can rely on is themselves!

One person, one city is a good quality, but what's wrong with a player moving for the greater good?

If the price of one person and one city is to be like De Rossi and Reus, who are repeatedly held by the club because of their love, how many people will be willing to do it?

As a result, players will naturally cherish their short careers more and try to earn more and have a greater say......

The inevitable formula derived from this naturally has only one answer - if you want my loyalty, you have to add money!

Unfortunately, when his coach says something like "eat three meals a day, sleep in one bed, why do you need so much money", he can let the "little boy in my heart" make a decision and take him away.

Fair isn't it?

What's even more interesting is that when Neymar, who transferred to Paris, went to court with Barcelona just to demand the promised "loyalty bonus" - this kind of black humor makes people feel the naked ridicule of capitalism.

Who's working isn't it for money?

We haven't even counted the behavior of agents such as Mendes and Raiola who keep pushing for the transfer of their players for their own rebates......

In such a noisy era, wanting one person, one city, and a quiet life may be unrealistic in itself.

epilogue

Of course, it is precisely because this beautiful quality is gradually disappearing that perhaps we will be more careful to appreciate it with a caring eye.

Bayern's Muller, Fox's Vardy, Hammers' Noble, and so on...... No matter what the reason, but their perseverance in the end always makes people feel a certain throbbing in their souls.

After all, football is a sport that needs romance, and one person, one city, is one of the biggest romances in football fairy tales.

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