Valentijn Driessen believes that a step to the international top is no longer for Mario Götze. The chief of football of The Telegraph writes in his column for the newspaper that the ‘true story’ around the 29-year-old attacking midfielder is ‘obscured’, as a result of which his contract extension at PSV is labeled as ‘unambitious’. Driessen states that Götze will never regain his old level physically due to his metabolic disease.
Driessen previously called Götze unambitious, because he had preferred a longer contract with PSV over interested Champions League clubs. “The characterization ‘unambitious’ stems from the obscuring of the true story. No one lets or dares to show the back of his tongue. Whether it is PSV, Götze himself, his environment or his trainer Roger Schmidt,” Driessen writes. He writes that in interviews ‘there is a lot of talk’ and the impression is created as if Götze has the best condition of all PSV players or can physically easily compete in the Champions League.
“Prefer to tell them that the step up from PSV to the absolute international top is no longer spent on the German superstar instead of playing hide and seek. Not because of his technical and tactical football qualities, because they are beyond any discussion. Götze has taken off quite a bit due to a long-term persistent metabolic disease,” concludes Driessen. Götze struggled with the metabolic disease myopathy in 2017 while playing for Borussia Dortmund, which meant that he was sidelined for several months. “Physically he will never again reach the level he was in before his illness, but the fitness level that has now been achieved is sufficient to be of great significance for PSV.”
Götze was taken off during the game against Feyenoord (0-4 defeat) on Sunday and Driessen sees that the attacking midfielder is struggling with the regularity of three games a week. “Everyone has great respect and admiration for Götze as the jewel of football,” says Driessen. He calls Götze by far the best player in the PSV selection in terms of quality, but at the same time speaks of a ‘player with a spot’.
“That’s why he now plays at PSV and we can enjoy him in the Netherlands. Thank you for that,” Driessen continues. “Ambitious is perhaps too harsh a judgment, but Mario Götze is no longer the absolute top. The Netherlands, Eredivisie and Europa League are now of his level. Nothing wrong with that. Stop breast-beating, be honest instead of making it look nicer than it really is.”