Mats Hummels on joining Bayern Munich: "The most difficult decision of my life"

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund officially ended the long-speculated transfer when both clubs announced that Mats Hummels would be heading home to Bavaria during the summer. In Dortmund's last home match, Hummels was subjecting to merciless boos and whistles from the home supporters after it was revealed that he would likely be leaving for Bayern.

Hummels posted a lengthy statement on his Facebook after the announcement, opening up about his decision.

After my transfer to FC Bayern was announced today, I would now like also to go into some more detail about it.

As you can imagine, the past few weeks have been very nerve-racking for me too, since I had to make the most difficult decision of my life so far. In the end, I came to the realisation that I wanted to accept a new challenge, one in my home city, where my family and many of my friends live.

I know that it will be hard for many of you to understand my decision. But after eight and a half really amazing years in Dortmund, the time had come for me to try something new.

It is with a heavy heart that I now leave the club and the team with whom I have grown and been able to celebrate great successes. Therefore, I would like to thank everybody who has made a contribution to this; you, the extraordinary fans of this great club; all of the employees who have done their work 'behind the scenes'. Of course I would also like to thank the three coaches I have worked under here, and [sporting director] Michael Zorc as well as [CEO] Hans-Joachim Watzke.

And particular thanks go to my team-mates since you - irrespective of the fact that these past years would not have been possible without you - were always there for me.

Of course I have seen all the many messages, comments and posts aimed at convincing me to stay at BVB. And the great encouragement in our home game against Wolfsburg, whether it was in the stadium, on the training field or at the supermarket, touched me profoundly. This just goes to show how unique BVB fans are, and I really appreciate it a lot.

Now I will give everything in these remaining training sessions and matches to honour my time here in a worthy fashion: by coming back to Dortmund with the DFB Cup in our hands!

Thanks!

Mats

Translated by Bundesliga.com

Hummels will once again appear before the home fans this weekend when Dortmund host FC Köln. His last chance at a trophy with them will be on May 21 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin when Dortmund and Bayern face each other in the DFB Pokal Final.