Borussia Dortmund captain Emré Can has had an emotional past few years. After his relevance and form began to decline shortly after previous head coach Edin Terzic named him squad captain ahead of th...
Borussia Dortmund captain Emré Can has had an emotional past few years. After his relevance and form began to decline shortly after previous head coach Edin Terzic named him squad captain ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, many of the aging midfielder centre-back’s mistakes on the pitch became magnified. Though Can still has plenty of passionate defenders amongst the German football faithful, the 32-year-old is often the target of fan abuse.
Can’s struggles with injury kept him off the pitch until match-day nine this year. Some were very surprised to learn that Dortmund actually wanted to extend his expiring contract heading into the current January transfer window. As the completion of his new extension nears, Can has looked easily ruffled on the pitch in the last two league matches; encounters in which he happened to score the game-winning goal with a penalty spot conversion both times.
He’s also been booked in three of his last five appearances.
Can earns a yellow card after on-pitch scuffle
A scuffle broke out in front of the Union goal in the 58th-minute. Can had the ball knocked out of his hands by FCU wingback Janik Haberer. The BVB skipper retaliating by shoving Haberer back. After Haberer rather theatrically fell to the ground, match official Robert Hartmann produced the yellow card. Some of the taunting Union supporters called for a red. Niko Kovac rather quickly took Can off before anything else could happen.
Can hadn’t quite calmed down afterwards.
Can hits back at Hartmann and Union Berlin
“We deserve respect, quite frankly,” Can remarked in the mixed zone afterwards. “We’ve been criticized a lot in recent weeks, sometimes rightly so. But today, huge compliments to the team. I’m incredibly proud of the lads for how they took it. You can’t just play good football here [away at Union]. You have to fight back, and that’s what we did for 90 minutes today. We fought the good fight. That was real men’s football.”
“He [Haberer] knocked the ball out of my hands and said something,” Can added of his booking. “Those are emotions. It shouldn’t happen, but it just comes up. I deserved the yellow card in that situation, but with all due respect, it was a bit one-sided. I don’t even know if he [Hartmann] gave Union a yellow card at all.“
Kovac explains Can’s quick subbing off
“I had to take him off because there was a danger that we would be playing with one man down,” Kovac told Sky Germany when explaining why he took Can (who was targeted by several Union players after the booking) off a few scant minutes later. “I wouldn’t have allowed that.“
Category: General Sports
