Career over at 36: former BVB flop Immobile calls it quits | OneFootball

He could score almost at will. Only at Borussia Dortmund did things not work out at all for Ciro Immobile. After just one season, the Italian’s black-and-yellow stint came to an end. Now the striker is hanging up his boots.

“In Ciro Immobile, we are getting a flexible and dynamic forward who has made an impressive mark in one of Europe’s top leagues. With his outstanding qualities, he fits Borussia Dortmund’s requirements perfectly,” rejoiced then-BVB sporting director Michael Zorc (now 63) in June 2014.

Zorc was by no means wrong in his assessment of Immobile’s abilities. The striker had scored 27 goals and set up another seven in 34 competitive matches for Torino the previous season. A truly impressive tally that seemed to justify the transfer fee of 18.5 million euros.

A year later, however, there was great disappointment in Dortmund. On the international stage, Immobile did show his qualities with four goals in six Champions League matches. In the Bundesliga, though, very little came off for the 1.85-meter man. He found the net just three times in 24 appearances for the Westphalians. Sevilla then took the Italian to Spain on loan.

No dinner with teammates

Off the pitch, the striker made headlines when he criticized the mentality in Germany in an interview, SPORT BILD reports. Speaking to the magazine SportWeek, he complained about the emotional distance of his Dortmund teammates: “In the eight months I’ve been here, not one teammate has invited me to their home for dinner.” He added that Germans were simply “cold” and that there was nothing you could do about it.

Photo: IMAGO

At 36, Immobile is now saying a final goodbye to professional football. As his last club, FC Paris, officially announced, the Italian forward is terminating his contract early, which had originally run until 2027. The 2021 European champion is thus consciously drawing a line under his playing career in order to focus entirely on family life in the future. “It is a difficult moment for me, because a big part of my life is coming to an end,” the 36-year-old commented on his decision.

The record of the 57-time international is certainly impressive. For Lazio Rome, Immobile produced 207 goals and 55 assists in 340 competitive matches. In Serie A, he was crowned top scorer a total of four times (2014, 2018, 2020, 2022).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.