Like Guardiola once did
World champion Draxler disappears into the desert
September 18, 2023, 6:11 p.m
Soccer world champion Julian Draxler is now moving from Paris Saint-Germain to Qatar. There he plays for the Al-Ahli SC club, where other stars have already ended their careers. The difference: Draxler is just 29 when he leaves the desert.
Before the transfer window closes in Qatar today, the desert state can look forward to a highly decorated newcomer: after a long struggle, world champion Julian Draxler has now decided to continue his career in the emirate. Or let it expire. Depending on your point of view. He signs a contract with Al-Ahli SC until 2025. And he continues the tradition of great players who decided to play for one of the oldest clubs in the desert state, such as Olivier Kapo or, be careful, Josep Guardiola. There is currently no official information about the transfer fee; it should be around nine million euros.
In the official announcement about the move, it is said that Draxler is looking forward to Qatar and didn’t have to think long after Al-Ahli’s request. Qatar enjoys an excellent reputation in general and in football, it continues.
After six years, Draxler’s time at the major club Paris St. Germain is now coming to an end; it was a time in which the 29-year-old was never able to firmly establish himself. He was most recently loaned out to Benfica Lisbon. But even there he was unable to give his career a new lease of life. Despite coach Roger Schmidt, who had already kissed another world champion in Mario Götze, but at PSV Eindhoven at the time. In addition, Draxler was injured for a long time.
And so Lisbon decided against converting the loan into a purchase. The Gladbeck native returned to the French capital and was placed in the group of discards at PSG. Superstar Kylian Mbappé, who had massively annoyed his club with his ambitions to change and a contract extension that was refused for a long time, was also there. Meanwhile, Mbappé is back in the star ensemble and is shining with goals. Draxler, on the other hand, is gone and is in danger of finally disappearing into football nirvana.
Draxler mostly lacks consistency
In between there was also discussion about whether he might get caught up in the wild star rush and sign a luxury contract in Saudi Arabia. But the rumor bones never really got any meat. So now Qatar, which shot into the global spotlight with the World Cup at the end of last year, but disappeared from it all the more quickly. Saudi Arabia’s offensive on the transfer market had sent its neighbor back into the football shadow.
The move from the big stage in Paris, where he was no longer assigned a role, to the small one in Qatar may finally be the end of all the big ambitions with which he moved from Schalke to Wolfsburg and finally to PSG. If he somehow still had an eye on getting a place in the struggling DFB team at the home European Championships next summer, for which he has played 58 times so far and scored seven goals, then he can finally check the box to undertake this already very daring project. Brazil’s 17 World Cup minutes were supposed to be just the beginning of a great DFB career, but the flexible offensive player remained a promise that was never kept.
His problem: He just couldn’t/can’t do it consistently. Neither for Paris nor for Germany. Meanwhile, in the national team, he felt the consequences of his inaction. Draxler was no longer a companion on ex-former national coach Joachim Löw’s final mission, the 2021 European Championships. The eternal lion always had big plans for the left winger. He was his biggest lobbyist. The player was once captain of the team and was very successful at it. With a promising squad, Draxler won the Confed Cup in Russia in 2017. At that time he was considered the leader of Leon Goretzka’s team, but he has since been left far behind on his career path
According to transfermarkt.de, Draxler’s market value is currently “only” six million euros, which is the lowest value since the beginning of 2012, when the then 18-year-old was in the process of conquering the Bundesliga. A different time, one that had a completely different prophecy for this exceptionally gifted player, as a move to Qatar before he turned 30 – his birthday is September 20th.