If all the documentaries about athletes have one thing in common, it is this: they are about how important it is to find a purpose, a role in the respective phase of a career, which usually does not go in a straight line and certainly cannot be planned in a straight line; and how important it can be for personal happiness to make the right decision at crucial points. That’s exactly why it can be said before the final of the US soccer league MLS between Los Angeles Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls: Marco Reus did a lot right with this move across the Atlantic.
He is the undisputed football star of this final, his face can be seen on the oversized posters next to the highways. He should lead the Galaxy to their first championship in ten years against German coach Sandro Schwarz’s New York Bulls – at the same time it would be the first of his own career. What a story!
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First: What would have been the alternative? “I had a lot of time to process it all,” Reus said to SZ shortly after his move to LA at the end of August. Of course, he meant that after 13 seasons in Dortmund he was no longer needed and that was made clear to him. While processing this, he must also have thought about what he had to deal with in his career: the defeat in the 2013 Champions League final against FC Bayern, in which he took the penalty to equalize Dortmund. Dortmund collapse in the final stretch of the Bundesliga in 2023. The lost Champions League final against Real Madrid this summer. And, of course: missing the 2014 World Cup after an injury in the last preparatory game – only Holger Badstuber would probably complain if Reus were ranked first among the footballers with the worst bad luck with injuries in history.
In this respect, the report that Reus was now also ill before the US final seemed almost cynical. In the semi-final against Seattle (1-0) he had to leave the field early with an adductor injury. During the week, however, Reus expressed optimism that he would be able to take part in the final.
He should not only win titles with Galaxy, but also be an attraction and role model at the same time
Two statements from Reus should never be forgotten. The first: “I would give up all money if I were healthy enough to do what I love: play football.” The second: That he could have moved again and again, to Paris, Madrid, Manchester, Milan; Places where titles are virtually guaranteed. “I really want to go this one “The club will become German champions,” he said in 2019: “It is home and family.” But football is also a business, and you even get kicked out of your home. So what should Reus have done? In the Bundesliga – he had offers – to play for sixth place? In Saudi Arabia – he could have gone there too – received ten times his MLS salary ($1.2 million)?
“I always wanted my family to feel comfortable,” he says about his wife Scarlett and their two children: “We can build something in Los Angeles, make contacts, expand our horizons.” He shouldn’t just win titles there, but also On the one hand, it can also be an attraction, like other stars such as Lionel Messi in Miami, Olivier Giroud at local rivals LAFC or the long-standing RB Leipzig conductor Emil Forsberg at the final opponent from New York – and on the other hand, also a role model for young US talent: The MLS now sees itself as a springboard, the elder statesmen from Europe and South America should show US youngsters what to expect when they jump into the European shark tank – so that they don’t go under, like Landon Donovan did in Leverkusen and Munich happened.
Reus’ contract runs until the end of 2025. He made a brilliant introduction to LA with one goal and four assists in the six regular season games after his move. He now has a special role to play in the final because fate, that lousy traitor, has come up with a special punchline: Riqui Puig, the 25-year-old superstar from Spain, trained at FC Barcelona, seriously injured his cruciate ligament in the semi-final win against Seattle ; That’s why Reus should direct the Galaxy midfield alone and deliver a story like the Welshman Gareth Bale in 2022: no longer wanted in Europe, he forced a penalty shootout with the goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time in extra time of the final, which his club LAFC won .
Marco Reus, this loyal soul; the gifted but often unlucky footballer who wants to win a title in a place where he feels at home: This Marco Reus, at 35, is in the final of a league in which Messi and Giroud also play, Sergi Busquets and Lorenzo Insigne, and he is likely to play a defining role in this game, perhaps even deciding it. The football gods must have given you a stone instead of a heart if you don’t find this scenario exciting, exciting, sentimental – and wonderfully suitable for the documentary that will be made about Marco Reus at some point.
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