{"id":32741,"date":"2026-05-07T08:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/champions-league-winner-niklas-sule-retires-at-30-due-to-injury\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T08:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:22:24","slug":"champions-league-winner-niklas-sule-retires-at-30-due-to-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/champions-league-winner-niklas-sule-retires-at-30-due-to-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League winner Niklas S\u00fcle retires at 30 due to injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) \u2014 Champions League winner and five-time winner. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Bundesliga<\/span> Champion Niklas S\u00fcle has announced his retirement at the age of 30 after an injury scare caused him to reconsider his future.<\/p>\n<p>Borussia Dortmund&#8217;s Germany defender will be leaving football at the end of this season as his contract with the club is already set to expire. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very clear about my decision,&#8221; Sule said on Spielmacher&#8217;s podcast in an episode published Thursday. &#8220;Nevertheless, it pains me to say this because football has given me so much and I had such an amazing and cool time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>S\u00fcle has missed 22 games this season with various injuries and said he felt more alert after injuring his knee against Hoffenheim last month. <\/p>\n<p>S\u00fcle said he &#8220;cried for 10 minutes&#8221; in the shower after club doctors examined his knee and shook his head, making him fear he had torn his ACL for the third time in his career, which will take several months to heal. <\/p>\n<h2>Family and weight concerns<\/h2>\n<p>Although the injury was not serious, Sule said it made him consider whether continuing to play soccer would improve his health and how rehabbing the injury would affect his ability to play with his children.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00fcle also spoke about how he struggled to manage his weight throughout his career and was perceived as lacking in fitness. At one stage, he even fasted and sweated it out in the sauna wearing a raincoat to lighten up for his weekly weigh-in sessions.<\/p>\n<p>Sule won <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">champions league<\/span> He won the German title five times with Bayern Munich in 2020 before moving to Dortmund in 2022. During his time with Dortmund, S\u00fcle unfortunately missed out on another title. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">lost the Bundesliga title<\/span> He will join Bayern at the end of the 2022-23 season. <\/p>\n<p>The following year, he reached the Champions League final with Dortmund, losing to Real Madrid, but achieved a memorable moment in the semi-final when he blocked a goal from Paris Saint-Germain&#8217;s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 on the goal line.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00fcle has played 49 times for Germany, including two World Cups, but has not played since 2023.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP Soccer: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/niklas-sule-dortmund-retirement-10cd1ac1acfd9100ad861379fc4e3fd3\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) \u2014 Champions League winner and five-time winner. Bundesliga Champion Niklas S\u00fcle has announced his retirement at the age of 30 after an injury scare caused him to reconsider his future. Borussia Dortmund&#8217;s Germany defender will be leaving football at the end of this season as his contract with the club is already<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Champions League winner Niklas S\u00fcle retires at 30 due to injury - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/champions-league-winner-niklas-sule-retires-at-30-due-to-injury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Champions League winner Niklas S\u00fcle retires at 30 due to injury - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) \u2014 Champions League winner and five-time winner. Bundesliga Champion Niklas S\u00fcle has announced his retirement at the age of 30 after an injury scare caused him to reconsider his future. 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