Sunday, 3rd August, 2014
Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has insisted that Marco Reus is going nowhere this summer, despite transfer talk linking the midfielder with a number of clubs, including Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal and Manchester United.
Recent news that Reus has rejected a new contract at Dortmund sparked a further wave of interest; the Ruhr giants offered to increase Reus' salary from €5m per year to €7m per year if he agreed to remove a release clause in his contract, set at €35m, which applies next summer.
However, the Germany international midfielder refused to remove the clause. But despite the contract blow, Watzke is sure Reus is not going anywhere this summer, with no sale on the cards from Dortmund's point of view.
"Nothing would have happened in the summer anyway. We've said that a thousand times already", Watzke explained to German magazine Kicker.
"Marco will play for Dortmund next season, and nowhere else in the world!"
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And Watzke instead is looking forward to the club being able to call upon Reus' services for many years to come, urging the midfielder to stay put and attain legendary status at Dortmund.
"We want to work with Marco in the long term.
"He has the unique opportunity with us to acquire a status like Uwe Seeler at Hamburg or Franz Beckenbauer at Bayern Munich. He can become a legend.
"We're trying to link him to Dortmund in the long term. Whether this will happen only the future will show. We are always clear and calm."
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