da pixbet： The attacker has been plagued by injuries, but he has the chance to bring the curtain down on his BVB career by lifting the European Cup

da brwin： Marco Reus freely admits there were times when he previously thought about leaving Borussia Dortmund. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool – nearly all of Europe's elite were interested in signing him at one point or another.

"But, in the end," Reus explained, "I always chose my club." Why? Because Dortmund was his "home" and the team felt like his "family". "I belong here," he said.

There were those that questioned his ambition, but Reus remained steadfast in his belief that he could realise his dreams in Dortmund. "I really want to win the Bundesliga with this club," he confessed in 2019. "I want to be in the Champions League final again."

Sadly, his hopes of finally winning a German title were dashed in heart-breaking circumstances last year, with Dortmund suffering a devastating final-day collapse. However, as Reus prepares to bid farewell to his beloved BVB, the Champions League dream is, incredibly, still alive.

On Saturday, Dortmund return to Wembley, scene of their last final appearance 11 years ago, to face the biggest club in the world, in the biggest game in club football.

Reus is unlikely to start against Real Madrid. Truth be told, there's no guarantee of game time at all. But the mere prospect of him being involved in a Champions League final, at the age of 35, and after more injuries than most players could bear, is well worth celebrating.

Getty 'The game's next superstar'

When it comes to Reus, there is an understandable temptation to focus on the negatives. His name has become synonymous with misfortune. For some, he is the great unfulfilled talent, a fantastic footballer cruelly prevented from realising his full potential by one savage setback after another.

Certainly, a decade ago, there were few more exciting attacking midfielders in world football. During Dortmund's run to the Champions League final, where he won a penalty in the 2-1 loss to Bayern Munich, he was directly involved in eight goals, netting 19 times in total in all competitions. He proved even more prolific the following season, scoring 23 goals in 44 games, as well as providing more assists than any other player in the Bundesliga. Put quite simply, there was no better player in Germany at the time.

"I think very, very highly of him," the legendary Franz Beckenbauer said in early 2014. "He's going to be the game's next superstar, that's my opinion. It's really fun to watch him play football."

AdvertisementGetty 'Dream was shattered'

The 2014 World Cup should have been the defining tournament of Reus' career. He was 24 and playing at the peak of his powers for one of the strongest sides in the international game.

However, while his great friend and former Dortmund team-mate Mario Gotze ended up scoring the winning goal in the final in Rio, Reus didn't make a single World Cup appearance, having been struck down by an ankle injury in his Germany's final warm-up game, against Armenia.

A devastated Reus stated, "A dream was shattered from one moment to the next." And not for the last time either.

Just two years after the bitter disappointment of missing out on Brazil 2014, Reus was left out of Germany's Euro 2016 squad after failing to recover in time from a groin injury. Coach Joachim Low lamented, "Marco has serious fitness problems."

It's always felt like the abiding theme of Reus' career, with the attacker once famously admitting that he would "give up all my money to be healthy enough to do my job."

Getty ImagesLooking after his body

Reus did make it to Russia for the 2018 World Cup, and even scored in the group win over Sweden, but he made the decision to pull out of Euro 2020 himself.

"After a complicated, exhausting and, in the end, 'thank God' successful season, I decided, together with (Low), not to go to the European Championship," he wrote on Instagram. "This decision was very difficult for me because I am always full of pride when I am allowed to appear for my country. But after a very intense year for me personally and achieving my goals at BVB, I made the decision to give my body time to recover!"

Unfortunately, even such a sensible approach to looking after himself failed to solve his fitness problems, as Reus went on to be ruled out of the 2022 World Cup with another ankle injury.

Getty'Time flies'

When one also considers that Reus has only two DFB-Pokal winners' medals to show for his career, it's undeniably difficult not to feel as if he maybe he would have been better served by joining another top club when he had the chance, just like so many of his former team-mates, such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham.

Reus doesn't see it that way, though. In his eyes, the shame isn't that he stayed, but that so many other great players left.

"I've always said that everyone is responsible for their own career. Time flies and you only have so much of it," he pointed out. "We've had a lot of players here who we could have built a fantastic team with, but they unfortunately made different choices and pursued other career paths. That should be respected.

"For a player like me, who always wants to compete for titles, it obviously stings to see the best players leave the club because they regrettably don't see that they would be able to make the next big step here. But I never had the sense that I should go down this route just because others did. I was always ready to build up something new again and thereby send a message to people: 'I'm staying here no matter what!"