Mario Götze opens up on his time with Bayern Munich

One of the great stories of the Bundesliga season has been the resurgence of Mario Götze’s career. The former Bayern Munich player and current Borussia Dortmund star has had his share of ups and down over the years, but now appears to be in form after a harrowing ordeal with his health and confidence.

As told to Bild+ (and captured by the Münchner Merkur), Götze does not view his time in Munich as something that “broke him.” In fact, he does not have many bad memories of his time with Bayern and refutes the claims that his time with the Rekordmeister was bad for his career:

I won three championships, the DFB Cup twice, and became World Champion with the national team at that time. That wasn’t quite so bad. I was able to work with Pep Guardiola for three years. I learned a lot from him - not only about football, but also about myself, my personality and my development. So I didn’t really break down in Munich. The three years in Munich were soccer and personally very valuable for me. I’m still profiting from that now.

Götze, who has four goals and six assists in 27 games across all competitions this season for Dortmund, admitted that he put too much pressure on himself to perform, while being surrounded by some of the world’s best players:

Expectations of me were extremely high from day one. I had much higher expectations of myself, but they could hardly be fulfilled from the outside.

It will be interesting to see if Lucien Favre calls Götze into the Starting XI for Der Klassiker on Saturday. If Favre calls Götze’s number, the 26-year-old will certainly be ready to help his team take a big step toward clinching the Meisterschale, even if this kind of success was not on the agenda entering the season:

That wasn’t to be expected before the start of the season. Last year, we had a lot of trouble finishing fourth, but in the summer there was a major upheaval. The fact that we are fighting for the championship seven match days before the end is a huge success. But, we’re not at the end yet. Now, of course, we want more!

Bayern Munich will square off with Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena on Saturday in a game that will have heavy implications on who walks away with the league crown for this season.