Home attracts ex-national players
Lars Stindl leaves Gladbach as a legend
4/12/2023, 9:46 p.m
The club would obviously have liked to keep him, but Lars Stindl has other plans. The offensive player leaves Borussia Mönchengladbach after eight years. The ex-national player experienced games with the foals that he “never dreamed of”. Now it’s back home.
Team captain Lars Stindl will not extend his expiring contract with Borussia Mönchengladbach in the summer and will return to his home country of Baden-Württemberg. The 34-year-old announced this in a video message to the fans. “The last eight years have been the best time of my life,” said the 12-time international, who won the 2017 Confederations Cup.
Stindl moved from Hannover 96 to the Lower Rhine in 2015 and has been a top performer and crowd favorite ever since. “Here I was allowed to play against FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. I would never have dreamed of that,” said Stindl, who could switch to his youth club Karlsruher SC, where he once turned professional. Stindl is currently building a house on the outskirts of Karlsruhe. The second division recently confirmed that they would talk to Stindl about a change, at KSC he had gone through all youth teams from the age of twelve.
In view of Stindl’s merits and his popularity in the club and with the fans, Borussia Mönchengladbach had recently tried to keep the veteran. The attacker confirmed that he had struggled, although his return home had actually been certain for some time: “But I think the time has come.”
In the case of Borussia, which is struggling in sport, the departure of the captain should leave a gap in sporting and personal terms, especially since Marcus Thuram and Ramy Bensebaini are other top performers before free transfers. Sports director Roland Virkus “respects and regrets the decision after trusting and intensive discussions”. At some point there will be melancholy, “but for now we will concentrate on the joint tasks that still lie ahead,” said Virkus.
Stindl, meanwhile, said he was “firmly convinced that this great club will get through this difficult time,” and concluded with the words: “Once Borussia, always Borusse. Your Capitano.” He has scored 80 goals in 264 competitive games for Borussia so far, only ten professionals have scored more for the five-time German champions.