Niklas Süle: Analyzing Dortmund's First Signing of 2022

Niklas Süle’s football education had started at Eintracht Frankfurt's youth academy which preceded a short stint at minnows SV Darmstadt.

He joined Hoffenheim’s academy in 2010 while current Manchester United manager, Ralf Rangnick was manager. This was a few years after German businessman and SAP co-founder, Dietmar Hopp decided to invest into the club from Sinsheim and completely transformed them.

Earlier in his career, however, Süle had been all about scoring a plethora of goals, and was outrageously prolific, netting over 100 goals in one season before his coaches decided he would be even better at the opposite end of the pitch. 

In his own words, "I was really a super striker. I cannot explain why [laughs]. No, seriously, somehow the coaches put me further back in my youth because of my size. And I have probably done quite well. Since then I've become an international defender."