Felix Götze (; born 11 February 1998) is a German professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club Rot-Weiss Essen.

Club career

Youth career

Götze played for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

until 2014, when he moved to the youth academy of

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. Götze began in Bayern's under-17 team for the 2014–15 season, before moving up to the under-19 team for the 2015–16 season. In 2017, Götze won the 2016–17 A-Junioren Bundesliga Süd/Südwest with the under-19 team, scoring six times during the season. The team went on to advance to the final of the A-Junioren Bundesliga championship round, before losing to

8–7 on penalties.

Bayern Munich

On 24 May 2017, Götze signed a professional contract with Bayern, with a two-year contract lasting until 2019. Götze began his senior career with Bayern Munich II in the 2017–18 season, making his debut in the Regionalliga Bayern on 29 September 2017 in a 3–1 away loss against

Wacker Burghausen SV Wacker Burghausen is a German football club based in Burghausen, Bavaria and is part of one of the nation's largest sports clubs with some 6,000 members participating in two dozen different sports. History The club was founded on 13 Novemb ...

. His first goal for the reserve team came on 3 November 2017, opening the scoring in the 26th minute in a 2–0 away win against FC Ingolstadt II.

FC Augsburg

On 1 July 2018, Götze moved on a free transfer to

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

, where he signed a four-year contract. He played his first match in the first round of the

2018–19 DFB-Pokal The 2018–19 DFB-Pokal was the 76th season of the annual German Association football, football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. The c ...

, a match ended with Augsburg winning 2–1 against

TSV Steinbach Haiger TSV Steinbach Haiger is a German association football club from Steinbach, near Haiger, Hesse. The club's greatest success has been to earn promotion to the tier four Regionalliga Südwest in 2015. History For most of its history the club was ...

. On 1 September 2018, he finally made his debut in the Bundesliga in a 1–1 draw against

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, in which he came on as a substitute in the 75th minute. On 25 September 2018, Götze scored the equaliser in the 87th minute in a match that finished 1–1 against his former club,

Loan to Kaiserslautern

On 1 February 2021, the last day of the 2020–21 winter transfer window, he moved to

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

club 1. FC Kaiserslautern on loan for the rest of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. He joined 1. FC Kaiserslautern on loan for a second time in July 2021.

Rot-Weiss Essen

On 29 August 2022, Götze was loaned to Rot-Weiss Essen by his request. On 24 May 2023, the transfer was made permanent.

International career

Youth

On 25 June 2017, the Germany national under-19 team include Götze in their final squad for the 2017 edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship. Götze made his youth international debut on 9 July 2017, coming on as a substitute in the 81st minute for Jonas Busam in the 4–1 loss to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the third round of the group stage. Germany were this eliminated from the tournament, finishing third in the group.

Personal life

Felix was born in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

, and is the younger brother of Mario Götze and

Fabian Götze Fabian Götze (born 3 June 1990) is a German footballer who plays as a left-back, and is currently a free agent. Career Götze began his career with SC Ronsberg and later signed for FC Eintracht Hombruch. In summer 2001, he was scouted by Boru ...

Career statistics

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gotze, Felix 1998 births Living people Footballers from Dortmund German men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Germany men's youth international footballers FC Bayern Munich II players FC Bayern Munich footballers FC Augsburg players FC Augsburg II players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Rot-Weiss Essen players Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players