In the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals, Dortmund visited Paris Saint-Germain, and the moment Mats Hummels scored the winning goal seemed to bring the team and fans back to 11 years ago. Borussia Dortmund continued to reach the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium in 2013, but the momentum came to an abrupt end in a defeat full of regrets. Eleven years later, Borussia Dortmund reached the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium and everything seemed to have changed, with the two veterans Marco Reus and Mats Hummels still in the line-up, even if they had taken very different paths, and it was still what they wanted to do to win their first Champions League title.
Borussia Dortmund shared a photo on social media X after reaching the Champions League final, showing Mats Hummels and Marco Reus, still wearing their shirts, and around the two were assistant coaches Shahin and Sven Bender - all four of whom were in the Dortmund squad for the 2013 Champions League final. In that final, Dortmund finally lost 1-2 and failed to lift the Big Ear Cup again after 1997.
Eleven years on, Marco Reus and Mats Hummels are still in the squad, and although the two have taken very different paths in between, neither of them has ever won the Champions League, and this final could be the last chance of their careers to achieve that dream.
Marco Royce is synonymous with loyalty and regret
After Dortmund's defeat to PSG, Marco Reuss climbed into the stands of Dortmund fans, hugged the fan leader with one hand, and pointed to the sky with the other, and the two led a group of die-hard fans to sing cheering slogans, even if the days in Dortmund have entered the final countdown, his status will not change, his love for the team will not change, Dortmund is his home.
Marco Reuss was born and raised in Borussia Dortmund, joined the team's youth academy at the age of seven, but unfortunately was abandoned at the age of 16 due to his thin stature, and played the best player in the Bundesliga at Borussia Mönchengladbach, and at the age of 23, he was finally re-recruited by Borussia Dortmund. In the first season of Marco Royce's "homecoming", Dortmund reached the Champions League final, but unfortunately his dream could not be realized, and even his friend Mario Gotze was poached by Bayern Munich, and the dream combination broke up in only one season.
Marco Reus has been loyal to Dortmund for many years, and it is rumored that Barcelona and Manchester City have offered him lucrative contracts, and he insists on staying; But loyalty is not exchanged for divine favor, and the best talent seems to be exchanged for luck. Marco Reuss has often been entangled in injuries in his career, and in the last warm-up game before the 2014 World Cup, he was in good form and was regarded as the best player in the German team, but he was seriously injured and retired from the team, and finally Germany lifted the Hercules Cup. In 2017, Borussia Dortmund lifted the German Cup, becoming his first title for his parent club, and although the German Cup was less important than the Bundesliga and the Champions League, he still held the trophy and kissed it as if it were his own daughter.
Marco Reuss is 34 years old in a blink of an eye, from a handsome boy who dyed his hair white and blonde when he returned to Dortmund in 2013, to now a stable father, Kjell Wätjen, who played as a caddie holding the hand of his idol Marco Reus, also made his Bundesliga debut last week and provided an assist for Marco Reus, but Marco Reuss is no longer a starter in the team and has announced earlier that he will leave after this season, The Champions League final will be his farewell match - perhaps as a player, there is no higher stage for farewell in the team competition, and can he turn the tragedy of his career in one fell swoop with the Champions League?
Mats Hummels - Champions League title for the only time in his career
Mats Hummels was the man behind the winner in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, and the 35-year-old was delighted to take home the Player of the Year trophy. Contrary to Marco Reuss, Mats Hummmels was a Bayern Munich academy and also debuted from Bayern, but as soon as he started his career, he was loaned and then sold to Dortmund, and became the backbone of Dortmund's defense from 2009 to 2012.
In 2016, Dortmund has never been able to return to glory, and his wife wants to return to Munich to live, he finally decided to return to his parent club and become another Dortmund coach who transferred directly to Bayern, after winning three seasons of the Bundesliga, he returned to Dortmund at the age of 30 and became one of the many players who returned after leaving, but Mario Gotze, Sahin and Shinji Kagawa are all failed cases of "recycling", and fans dare not have any emotions and expectations.
But the truth is that in 2024, Mats Hummels is still a solid presence, especially in the last three seasons - still starting nearly 70% of Bundesliga games, not suffering many injuries, scoring ability, and often playing in key moments.
Mats Hummels' career is different from that of Marco Reus, he has won many titles, the Bundesliga, the World Cup, all of them, but he has never lifted the Champions League. After all, Mats Hummels is really not young, and Mats Hummels' return to Wembley after 11 years is likely to be his last chance to fight for the Big Ears Cup, when Dortmund will be regarded as a challenger against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
'From the second group game we believed we could win every game, so why feel like we can't win at Wembley? So says Mats Hummels.
Football is about winning and losing, but it also needs dreams and romance, so how will the story of Mats Hummels and Marco Royce end? Is Marco Royce destined to be a tragic figure? Is Mats Hummels' place in the trophy cabinet reserved for the Champions League destined to be vacant? Or will it end up with a happy ending? The development of the story will end at Wembley Stadium on June 1 anyway.