Enlarge image
Mario Götze (at a press conference in June)
Photo: HEIKO BECKER / REUTERS
In the Bundesliga, Mario Götze meets RB Leipzig with Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening.
It could have gone the other way too.
To a certain extent, Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco saw the 2014 soccer world champion in his own jersey before his own eyes.
At least that's what emerges from a story that Götze told the "Bild" newspaper.
The 30-year-old vacationed in Mallorca in mid-June.
There he happened to be staying in the same hotel as the Leipzig club officials.
Tedesco and his colleagues met at the facility to analyze the season after beating SC Freiburg in the DFB Cup final.
Götze actually wanted to meet “secretly, quietly” with Frankfurt’s sports director Markus Krösche to talk about a change.
However, when Götze met the commercial manager of Leipzig, Florian Scholz, both sounded out a plan to surprise Tedesco first.
"A bit of 'get it fun'"
Götze burst into the Leipzig coach's room and presented himself as a new signing.
"It was a bit like 'You're kidding' with me as a decoy," said Götze.
“Domenico Tedesco's face was worth it.
I won't soon forget his look."
In the meantime, Götze seems to have settled in Frankfurt.
Before the Saturday evening game (6.30 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: Sky), Götze had scored his first goal of the season at Werder Bremen the previous week.
Between 2020 and 2022 Götzhe had played for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
hba/dpa