Record signing Schuerrle is a flop – Dortmund boss

Berlin (AFP) – Borussia Dortmund’s boss admits record signing Andre Schuerrle has been a flop since his arrival in 2016 with the Germany winger linked to a loan spell at Inter Milan.

The 27-year-old returned as a hero from the last World Cup after his pin-point cross at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium was volleyed home by Mario Goetze to win the Brazil 2014 final for Germany.

Dortmund signed Schuerrle from Wolfsburg for a club-record 30 million euros ($36.4mn) in July 2016, but he has failed to impress in the black and yellow shirt in an injury-ravaged spell.

So far in 2017/18, Schuerrle has played four games for a total of 225 minutes.

He has only made 19 appearances in the Bundesliga, nine of them in the starting team, yielding two goals and four assists, since joining Dortmund and has suffered a succession of injuries.

“Frankly and honestly, both sides are – as of now — not yet satisfied,” Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke told German daily Die Welt.

Schuerrle’s agent has recently mentioned a loan spell at Inter Milan to kick start his client’s career, but Watzke suggests the player should “maybe research the root cause” of his below-par form.

“He has had every chance, and he will get every chance, to show what he can do,” Watzke told SID, an AFP subsidiary.

“But at the end of the day, he has to put in the performances.”

Dortmund host Wolfsburg on Sunday when the Bundesliga resumes after the winter break and Schuerrle is expected to be named on the bench.