One Love: Marco Reus and Borussia Dortmund - Moment of the Weekend

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May 6, 2024, 01:46 PM

Kjell Watjen looked up to see him in space, his captain.

Watjen, all of 18, was making his debut for Borussia Dortmund after nine years of working his way through the youth ranks at the club. He'd seen the Yellow Wall bounce on many a day, been in it, chanting names, yelling himself hoarse. Now, he was making them bounce. This is the dream, isn't it?

If anyone understood the dream that Watjen was living, it was that man he was making the pass to. Dortmund born. At the club from age 5 till 17, when he was thrown out abruptly for being "too skinny". Spent six years away, making his name in professional football, tearing it up at the highest level. Came back to the club, the reject embraced as the big new hope. Stayed there another 12 years, through pain and near-success and glorious failure... youth discard turning into arguably the most iconic footballer in the history of the club. 24 of his 34 years on this planet spent wearing yellow and black. His name now as inextricably linked to the club's as the club's is to his: Marco Reus and Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Dortmund and Marco Reus. Footballing manna.

As Reus ran, the Westfalonstadion pitch opened up. Watjen, deep inside his own half, picked out the perfect pass -- bisecting the covering defenders, weighted just so, Reus collecting it in his stride. Reus ran through on goal remarkably clear of pressure. He'd always had a knack of finding space, of filling it with a suddenness that caught oppositions off-guard and here he was at it again. Running clear, he stared FC Augsburg keeper Tomas Koubek in the eye before sitting him down and completely taking him out of the equation with a delicious scoop that arced into the back of the net in slow motion. Goal #169 in appearance #425 for the love of his life.

A day before this rather routine win against Augsburg, Reus had announced that he'd not be at the club next season, and it had left everyone shaken. This had turned from an ordinary season-winding-down-affair to something special. Because no one had seen it coming. Of course, everything -- good, great, legendary -- has to come to end at some point, but with Reus you just felt you'd never actually reach that point. Despite the near-misses, despite the lack of success, this was never on the agenda.

After returning from Borussia Monchengladbach as one of the most exciting prospects in world football, after 12 senior years at his club, he has next to nothing to show for it by silverware. But at no point had he considered leaving. Great talents had come, become superstars, and left. He had remained, the Yellow Wall calling to him, un-rejectable. He had formed one of Europe's great attacking midfield partnerships with childhood best friend Mario Götze, he had been the perfect foil for Robert Lewandowski's insatiable goalscoring. He had been the Robin to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's Batman, he'd ripped apart defences with Ousmane Dembele. He had set up Erling Haaland's rise to the very top, mentored Jadon Sancho and guided Jude Bellingham. He's here now, mid-2024, running into space, giving Watjen a debut to remember. That's what he does.

Now, in football, winning is everything. That's the whole point of playing -- to win, and that's what Dortmund aim to do season-in, season-out, what they will hope happens in Paris in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal later this week. It's just that Reus hasn't done much of it at Dortmund -- a CL final in his first year and a Bundesliga thrown away on the last day of his second-last season the closest he's come to winning major silverware outside the DFB Pokal. Injuries have marred his career, robbing him of chances of international glory with Germany, forcing him to reset and level up over and over again for Dortmund. He's done all of it without complaint, that trademark dimpled, lopsided grin a permanent fixture, eager eyes lighting up his face.

You could look at his career, those of his former teammates, and laugh at him for not moving on, call out what you might consider a lack of ambition, bemoan his (relatively) barren trophy cabinet. And yet he won't care, and neither will anyone who supports Borussia Dortmund.

You see, winning may be everything in the short term but take a step back, look beyond what you can see and there's something deeper there: love. Look at it that way, and there ain't anything bigger.

So, for marking this rare love with a sublime goal the day after he announced that there wouldn't be a 25th year in BVB schwarzgelben, Marco Reus takes our Moment of the Weekend.