Easy to cheer for Reus’s current success

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This article was published 18/01/2019 (2760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is something strangely satisfying, perhaps curious and certainly rare, about discovering within the otherworldly, hyper-antagonistic domain of professional sports a figure who is genuinely likable. Not an athlete or coach who fulfils his or her role as a “good celebrity,” nor the ones who appear to open themselves up on social media but remain, whether or not it seems so, protected by an intentional and highly controlled mediation.

There is an abundance of genuinely excellent and upstanding people in sports, as in any walk of life. But someone who is generally admired, sympathized with and widely well-wished that life will smile on them? They’re not as common. Which is why, when a player such as Marco Reus enjoys success, it’s almost impossible to not enjoy it alongside him.

Reus, the Bundesliga player of the month for December, is playing some of the best soccer of his career. With 11 goals in the German top flight, he trails only Eintracht Frankfurt’s Luka Jovic and Borussia Dortmund teammate Paco Alcácer. Similarly, his eight assists have him just a single helper off the top of the chart, and in a central role between Raphael Guerreiro and the youthful Jadon Sancho (20-year-old Jacob Bruun Larsen has often operated to his left, as well) he has thrived as the playmaking inspiration on a team set to start the second half of the season, or Rückrunde, in first place. 

“An incredible footballer — fantastic,” Dortmund manager Lucien Favre said in a recent interview with Bild. “In his favourite position through the middle, he can make his mark on every game. He’s so intelligent; (he) feels football.”

Of course, there has never been any doubt Reus can be a difference-maker in a high-achieving team — or, only once, when Dortmund initially sold him, then 19 years old, to Borussia Monchengladbach. They were concerned about his slight frame and perceived frailty. As it turned out, they weren’t entirely wrong. Although the attacker played almost every league match while with the Foals, in recent seasons, since his return to Dortmund, persistent muscle and ligament injuries have limited his minutes and effectiveness. 

This past term, Reus played only 11 Bundesliga matches (he still scored seven goals), and he turned out just 17 times the season before that (again scoring seven goals). But it was in 2014, following a healthy, productive club campaign in which he played 44 matches and scored 23 goals, that he sustained his most devastating injury — a ligament tear in an ankle that ruled him out of the World Cup his Germany side went on to win. 

“I would give away all the money to be healthy again,” he told GQ in 2017, following another injury in the DFB-Pokal final — a match he watched Dortmund win after being withdrawn at the break. “As top players, we earn a lot of money, but sometimes we pay a hefty price with our health.” 

There is bad health, and there is bad luck. Reus has had his share of both.

In addition to missing out on Germany’s successful World Cup campaign, the attacker made his Dortmund homecoming just as the club was about to embark on a prolonged downturn. Having won back-to-back titles in the seasons before his US$19.3-million reacquisition, they finished distant runners-up to Bayern Munich in both 2013 and 2014, and then dropped to seventh in 2015.

Still, he managed to endear himself to Die Schwarzgelben fans, even as relegation remained a very real possibility. In February 2015, he renegotiated his contract, removing a release clause that would have all but prohibited Dortmund from moving him in the event of a drop to the second division. It was an unselfish, unusual act of putting the club’s interests ahead of his own, and it marked him for a very real and very human respect that many high-profile figures never attain or even want.

Now, few things forge a connection between a celebrity and the public quite like shortcomings, and in 2014, Reus found himself in legal trouble for having used a fake driver’s licence over a period of several years. It was so ridiculous a blunder as to be comically “everyman.” And, while he got off rather more easily than his everyday fans might have, the incident did nothing to diminish the admiration fans had for him. If anything, it sealed it. Here was someone, famous and popular, who had also become a real-life person with real-life problems — a player who garnered sympathy in addition to accolades.

More than four years on, the run-in with the law is well behind him, as are, at least for the moment, the 29-year-old’s injury problems. Reus is in his best run of form in five seasons, playing some of the best soccer of his career. 

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“I’m in good shape, no question, and I’ve always said that I can help any team when I’m healthy and in rhythm over a longer period of time,” he told Süddeutsche Zeitung this past month. “But saying, ‘This is the best Reus ever’ is a little over the top for me. That would also mean that it won’t get any better, but it’s still getting better.” 

When they visit RB Leipzig today, Dortmund will commence the Bundesliga’s second semester with its fate in its own hands. The likes of Sancho and newcomers Abdou Diallo, Thomas Delaney and Axel Witsel have certainly contributed to the unexpected title charge, but none of it happens without a healthy, thriving Reus. 

It’s hard to think of anyone who deserves a championship more than him. It’s satisfying to see fortune do a good turn for someone so persistent, so breakable, so likable.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter: @JerradPeters