DORTMUND: Borussia Dortmund has released World Cup-winning forward Andre Schurrle from his contract a year early, the German club said on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old Schurrle last played for Dortmund in May 2018 before loans at Fulham and Spartak Moscow. Dortmund said Schurrle and the club mutually agreed to terminate his contract, which was due to expire next year.

“On reflection, it was a period with highs and lows but also with many valuable experiences both on a sporting and, in particular, on a personal level,” Schurrle said in a statement on the Dortmund website.

He scored only once in the Russian league and missed all of Spartak’s games in early 2020 with an ankle injury. He didn’t return for Spartak when the league resumed last month amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The troubled season in Russia continued Schurrle’s difficulties recapturing the form which made him a star for Bayer Leverkusen and Chelsea earlier in his career and a World Cup champion with Germany in 2014.

Schurrle is the second member of Germany’s 2014 World Cup team to leave Dortmund in recent weeks. Mario Gotze, who scored the winning goal in the final off an assist from Schurrle, left last month when his contract expired.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2020