Marco Reus

Rot Weiss Ahlen

Reus was born in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. He began to play football for his hometown club Post SV Dortmund in 1994 and joined the youth ranks of Borussia Dortmund in 1996. He played for Borussia Dortmund until he left for the U-19 team of Rot Weiss Ahlen in the summer of 2006. During his first year there, he played as an attacking midfielder and was featured in six games for the club's second team, which played in the Westphalia league at the time. He scored a goal in each of his first two games. The following year, he was able to break into Ahlen's first team, which played in the then German third division, today's fourth tier Regionalliga Nord. He would wear the number 47 that season. Reus featured in 16 games that season, two of which he started. His only goal came on the last matchday, where he played the full 90 minutes for the first time that season, and propelled the team to promotion into the 2. Bundesliga. In 2008–09, as a 19-year-old, he had his definitive breakthrough as a professional football player, playing 27 games and scoring four goals, while playing in the shirt number 18.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

On 25 May 2009, Reus signed a four-year contract with Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach, receiving the shirt number 11. On 28 August, he scored his first Bundesliga goal in a game against Mainz 05 after a 50-metre solo run, and since then became a prolific goalscorer for his club under Lucien Favre. On 20 August…

On 11 August 2009, Reus made his Germany under-21 debut in a friendly match against Turkey. On 6 May 2010, he earned his first call-up to the senior team for a friendly match against Malta on 14 May. Three days before the match, he withdrew from the squad due to a leg injury picked up in the last game of the season against Bayer Leverkusen, which forced him to miss the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Joachim Löw would call him up again immediately after the World Cup in August, but Reus had to pass once more due to illness. On 7 October 2011, he made his senior team debut against Turkey, receiving the shirt number 21. He scored his first goal for the team on 26 May 2012 in a 5–3 defeat to Switzerland. On 22 June, he scored in a 4–2 victory in the UEFA Euro 2012 quarter-final against Greece, his first start for Germany in a major tournament. In the semi-final, his side was defeated with 2–1 by Italy. Even though there was no match to determine the third place, Reus and his team, as well as Portugal, would be awarded a bronze medal each, for reaching the final four of the competition. Reus established himself as a regular member of Joachim Löw's side in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, scoring five goals and registering three assists in six matches. He was named in Germany's squad for the World Cup finals, but was ultimately forced to withdraw after suffering an ankle injury in the team's last 6–1 warm-up win against Armenia on 6 June. Shkodran Mustafi…

Reus is renowned for his versatility, speed, agility, technical skills, intelligence, and shooting ability; however he is also known for his proneness to injury. In 2012, Franz Beckenbauer spoke about Reus, along with Mario Götze, saying, "...as a classic duo there is nobody better than the prolific Reus and Götze." Reus was voted the Footballer of the Year (Germany) in 2012 and was named in the UEFA Team of the Year in 2013. In 2013, he was ranked as the fourth best footballer in Europe by Bloomberg. Although he is highly regarded for his attacking movement, powerful finishing with either foot in open play, timing, and eye for goal, as well as his accuracy from set pieces, Reus is also a hard-working player and a precise passer, who possesses good vision, which enables him to create chances and provide assists to teammates, in addition to scoring goals himself. As such, Reus is a versatile forward, who is capable of playing in several offensive positions, and has been deployed as a second striker, in a central role as an out-and-out striker (although this is not his favoured position), as a winger on either flank (although he favours the left side, as it allows him to cut inside onto his stronger right foot), and also in a central attacking midfield role as a number 10. Beyond his qualities as a player, Reus is also known for his leadership, having served as captain of Borussia Dortmund.

Reus is named after the Netherlands legend, Marco van Basten. According to Reus, his parents were originally going to name him 'Dennis' but thanks to Van Basten's famous volley goal against Soviet Union in the final of Euro 1988 they decided to name him Marco. Reus started dating German model Scarlett Gartmann in December 2015. Together they had their first daughter in March 2019 and got married later the same year. They welcomed their second child in January 2024. Reus has said that, if he was not a professional football player, he would be a pilot. Reus was the cover athlete of FIFA 17, after being voted in by a fans' poll organized by Electronic Arts. In March 2020, Reus and his wife, Scarlett, donated €500,000 to people and smaller businesses in need in his hometown of Dortmund during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Legal issues

In December 2014, Reus was fined €540,000 for driving without a valid licence. The fine was based on his then monthly salary of €180,000. He had been driving for years with a fake Dutch licence, a felony in its own right, and had been issued speeding tickets on at least five occasions since 2011 without authorities knowing that he was not legally licensed. The felony charges for using a counterfeit licence were later dropped, causing some controversy and raising questions from politicians whether his celebrity status had been a reason for a milder sentence. When convicted, Reus said, "The reasons I did it are something I cannot really…