Erik Durm has had enough
Rio world champion ends career in the middle of the season
January 24, 2024, 5:40 p.m
Erik Durm won the World Cup title in Brazil in 2014 with the German national soccer team. This season he actually wants to help the struggling Betzenberg. But he realizes: It can’t go any further.
Former world champion Erik Durm is hanging up his football boots and ending his career. This was announced by his previous club, 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Accordingly, the Palatinate native has agreed to immediately terminate his contract with the second division club. The 31-year-old Durm moved from Eintracht Frankfurt to Betzenberg in July 2022. The right-back played a total of 34 competitive games for FCK.
“I moved to the club I love 1.5 years ago with the firm intention of being able to play an important role in the club and team at FCK,” said the 2014 world champion. Since last summer, however, Durm has had an increasing number of minor injuries to fight, which forced him to take breaks more and more often.
This “situation, coupled with the prospect of fewer playing times,” made the decision he has now made mature. “As a FCK fan, I will of course continue to come to Betze with all my heart and soul whenever possible,” announced Durm. In the current season he only made four appearances and was unable to prevent the traditional club from slipping into the relegation battle.
Before his time with the Red Devils, Durm played in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund and Frankfurt and played a total of 101 games in the upper house. He won the DFB Cup with BVB in 2017 and the Europa League with SGE in 2022. He was not used in the World Cup triumph in Brazil ten years ago, but played a total of seven international matches.
Durm is not the first Rio world champion from the 23-man squad to end his career. Captain Philipp Lahm, Mesut Özil, Benedikt Höwedes, Kevin Großkreutz, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Roman Weidenfeller, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose and André Schürrle are no longer active in professional football, while Shkodran Mustafi and Jérôme Boateng are currently without a club.