Mats Hummels will stay at Borussia Dortmund for another year. The 2014 World Cup winner reached an agreement with the club on an extension of his expiring contract for another season shortly before the decision in the Bundesliga title race.
"I didn't take the decision lightly. It was a long balancing process," said the 34-year-old, according to a BVB statement on Wednesday: "Now, at the end of the season, I can say: I'm still really up for another year." However, the focus is on the last step towards the championship on Saturday (15.30 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) against FSV Mainz 05.
"We still have 90 intense minutes ahead of us. After that, we hope to be able to celebrate something big together," said Hummels, who has been playing for Dortmund since 2007 with a three-year break spent at Bayern Munich. "He identifies a lot with our club. BVB and Mats simply belong together," said managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke. In the current season, Hummels made 29 Bundesliga appearances, a total of eight times he played in the DFB-Pokal and Champions League.
Should he win the championship trophy on Saturday, he would join an elite circle with three BVB titles: so far, only Helmut Bracht, Willi Burgsmüller (both 1956, 1957, 1963), Lars Ricken, Stefan Reuter (both 1995, 1996, 2002) and current sporting director Sebastian Kehl (2002, 2011, 2012) have achieved the championship treble.