Marco Reus: Always the bridesmaid, never the bride

Few neutrals could have failed to be moved by the sight of Borussia Dortmund club captain Marco Reus at the final whistle at the Signal Iduna Park. The Dortmund-born attacker was so close to an elusive first Bundesliga title, only to have his dreams shattered in the cruellest of ways. Reus has been a constant since 2012 when he joined the club, he’s remained loyal, but as Saturday proved, football can be a cruel sport and the fairy tale doesn’t always have a happy ending.

Rejected by the club as a 16-year-old he made a name for himself at Borussia Mönchengladbach before making his dream move to the newly crowned champions in 2012. Since then he has remained true to the Schwarzgelben when other club greats such as Robert Lewandowski, Mario Götze and Ilkay Gündogan were tempted away.

This season was looking like his just reward was coming for his sterling service, but the eternal bridesmaid was denied the starring role and yet again has to trail in the glorified shadow of the Bayern Munich bride.

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Reus does have two DFB Pokal wins on his Dortmund CV, but the Meisterschale was the big one he wanted. “The whole club, the whole city would be so happy for Marco Reus if we could get our hands on the title this weekend,” BVB’s Sporting Director Sebastian Kehl said earlier this week.

“I know what it would mean to him in his role as captain. Marco has written so many stories here and has done great things at this club for so many years. One thing that’s always been said about him is that he has never managed to win the title. I think that’s something that has always grinded away at him a bit,” added Kehl.

It will now continue to grind away at him and cast a shadow over his recent contract extension with the club that will keep him at the club until the end of next season. Reus is no stranger to dealing with disappointment after being ruled out of Germany’s 2014 World Cup winning squad due to injury and also missing out on Euro 2016 with injury. Another ankle injury saw him miss out on the World Cup in Qatar.

The mourning will go on for a while in Dortmund and processing the huge disappointment will take time. For Reus it could have been a ‘now or never’ moment, but the club will have to go again next season and try to finally dethrone Bayern and give Reus the bride role he so badly craves (and deserves).