World champion Andre Schurrle has announced his retirement from football
He gave the assist for Mario Gotze's 2014 World Cup-winning goal
"I don't need the applause anymore"
The date? 13 July 2014. The venue? The Maracana. The minute? 113.
Step forward Andre Schurrle. The Germany No9 found another gear on the left wing, ghosted past two defenders before finding just enough space for a cross in between Javier Mascherano and Pablo Zabaleta to find team-mate Mario Gotze. What happened next will live eternally in world football history.
Almost exactly six years after that famous night in Rio de Janeiro, the now-29-year-old has announced his retirement from football. "The decision matured in me for a long time," Schurrle told Der Spiegel. "The depths became deeper and the highlights less and less. I don't need the applause anymore."
In the interview with Der Spiegel Schurrle added: "You always have to play a certain role in order to survive in the business, otherwise you will lose your job and you will not get a new one."
Schurrle ended his club career with Borussia Dortmund, which included a couple of loan spells at Fulham and Spartak Moscow.
"Looking back, it's been a time with a lot of ups and downs, and a valuable experience, both in the sporting sense but also privately," he said in a statement on Borussia Dortmund's official website. "I'd like to thank the club's bosses and wish the club and its special fans all the best for the future."
Schurrle's career in numbers
Position: Winger
Clubs: Mainz, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea, Wolfsburg, Borussia Dortmund, Fulham, Spartak Moscow
National team: 57 appearances (22 goals)
Honours: World Cup (2014), DFB-Pokal (2015, 2017), Premier League (2015)
Quotes
His first World Cup memories: "That was Japan and Korea in 2002. I still remember exactly how I watched the final between Germany and Brazil on the couch with my parents at home, and how sad I was after we lost."
On the dream of winning a World Cup: "As a child, you dream of many things. Especially when you see your role models on TV and imagine what you could achieve yourself. Back then my idol was Michael Ballack. My dream has always been to make football my profession in the first place and maybe even to play for the national team. But I really didn't dare to dream that I would even go so far as to assist the winning goal in a World Cup Final."
His memory of Gotze's goal in the 2014 World Cup Final: "This moment and the World Cup victory were without question the greatest success of my career. You see it often on TV and are inevitably often reminded of it. I'll never forget these moments."