DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) 鈥� Champions League winner and five-time champion Niklas S眉le has announced his retirement at the age of 30 after an injury scare led him to reconsider his future.
The Borussia Dortmund and Germany defender is leaving soccer at the end of the season, when his contract at the club was already due to expire.
鈥淚’m very, very clear about my decision,鈥� S眉le said on the Spielmacher podcast in an episode released Thursday. “Despite that, football has given me a huge amount and I had such a great, cool time that there’s pain in saying this.”
S眉le has missed 22 games with various injuries this season and said a moment of clarity came after he hurt his knee in a game against Hoffenheim last month.
S眉le said he 鈥渃ried for 10 minutes鈥� in the showers after the club doctor examined his knee and shook his head, leaving S眉le to fear he’d sustained a third career ACL tear, meaning months of recovery.
Family, weight concerns
The injury turned out not to be that severe but S眉le said it left him considering the health impact of continuing to play soccer and how injury rehab would affect his ability to play with his children.
S眉le also discussed struggles managing his weight throughout his career and being perceived as lacking fitness. At one stage, he said, he resorted to fasting and wearing a raincoat in the sauna to sweat out water and be lighter for weekly weighing sessions.
S眉le won the with Bayern Munich in 2020 and the German title five times before a move to Dortmund in 2022. S眉le narrowly missed out on another title when Dortmund to Bayern in the final minutes of the 2022-23 season.
He reached the Champions League final with Dortmund the following year, losing to Real Madrid, but achieving a memorable moment with his goal-line clearance to deny Kylian Mbapp茅 a goal for Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals. S眉le has played 49 times for Germany, including at two World Cups, but not since 2023.
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