German paper says Mario Götze likely to spurn Tottenham Hotspur

Well, poop. If the German football media is correct, Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit of Mario Götze might be close to an end, and not in a way that makes Spurs fans go squeeeeeee. German newspaper Kicker is reporting that Götze’s old club BVB Dortmund is expected to re-sign him three years after he left the club for Bayern Munich for over £30m. In addition, Dortmund is also confident that they’ll sign Andre Schurrle.

The story is only in the print edition of Kicker at the moment; it hasn’t hit the website, so we’re going off of secondhand reports on social media. If you’re the kind of person who holds out hope, then let me give you some: this isn’t a “Dortmund have bid for Götze” story, it’s a “Dortmund are expecting to land him” story. There’s apparently no indication of how much his transfer fee would be, or whether he’s even still considering coming to London. So it’s not a done deal, but it does make a lot of sense despite Dortmund fans unlikely to welcome him back with open arms.

There’s still a chance that Spurs might make a play for him if they feel as though he’d be amenable to coming. However, Spurs are probably unlikely to make a huge outlay for Götze, but they’d be more than happy to land a player of his quality on the cheap. If Dortmund really want him back, they’ll probably get him unless Mario is super keen on the idea of taking a pay cut to play in the Premier League. Any kind of bidding war between Dortmund and Tottenham will probably result in Spurs tabling their interest and looking elsewhere.

So don’t give up hope quite yet, but it sure doesn’t seem very likely at this point. Rats.

Update: According to the Standard, Spurs “have no interest” in Mario Götze and are actively pursuing other targets. Welp.