Rumour Mongering: Mario Götze in Ongoing Talks with Jürgen Klopp

Mario Götze has history with Jürgen Klopp, with the 26-year-old midfielder breaking through at Borussia Dortmund during his time in charge—and abandoning him to join poor, destitute Bayern Munich on a free transferin a €37M deal as preferred Pep Guardiola’s project.

By the time it became clear his Bayern move had been a major mistake, Klopp had set up shop at Anfield and there was some talk of Götze joining him in England. In the end, though, he headed back to Dortmund, where he’s so far failed to hit his old heights.

Could he move on again, then, perhaps reuniting—finally!—with Klopp in the hopes of belatedly becoming the player everyone thought he could be when he was Germany’s brightest teenage talent? The rumour mongers, not surprisingly, say maybe!

And part of that maybe is based in Götze recently talking a bit about his relationship with Klopp, admitting he continued to talk to his former manager while at Bayern, then before his move back to Dortmund, and that he still keeps in touch with him to this day.

“He knew I wanted to leave Bayern,” Götze told Bild this week. “Of course we talked. He knows me very well and that I am always looking for new challenges. I often speak to Klopp. He brought me to the first team when I was 17 and he made it all possible.”

A smattering of tabloids including the Metro have since taken that quote and framed it in the most salacious way. Because clearly if Götze often speaks to Klopp and is always looking for new challenges, well, two plus two equals transfer. It just does.

Alternately, it could mean nothing more than that Klopp and a former player keep in touch. It could just mean that, as much as the rumour mongers might like to believe otherwise.