Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

Dortmund's Mats Hummels: I don't need Champions League to be happy

Borussia Dortmund captain Mats Hummels says he does not need Champions League football to be happy, while kicker reports that Marco Reus will wait until March to make a decision on his BVB future.

World Cup winner Hummels, 26, has been linked with a switch away from Dortmund to both Manchester United and Arsenal in recent weeks. 

The centre-back recently confirmed that he would not commit to the struggling Bundesliga club with words, but said that he has already shown in the past that action speaks louder than words.

Confronted with reported interest from United by German paper Die Welt, Hummels explained: "All those rumours are another issue I have never commented about. I've done that in the past, and I will continue to do so."

But Hummels also recognised the fact that for the first time in years, Dortmund are to miss out on Champions League football as they find themselves 17th in the Bundesliga.

Following a miserable first half of the 2014-15 season, Hummels said that qualification for Europe is "no longer is a realistic issue... the fight for the Champions League does not exist in my head," but added: "Fundamentally, I don't need to play Champions League to be happy. I don't [know] whether others see that differently."

Amid speculation over the future of several BVB key players such as Reus and Ilkay Gundogan, Hummels believes that missing out on Champions League football might lead to players leaving the club, but that this would not change anything.

"Maybe we indeed lose players should we not qualify for Champions League, but what I can already tell you is that should we not lose 15 players at once, we'll still have a super team next season," he said.

Whether Reus, who can reportedly trigger a 25 million-euro release clause in the summer, will be part of that "super team" is still undecided, kicker reported on Monday.

The German football magazine cited "those who know Reus very well" and claimed that Reus does not need Champions League football to stay at Dortmund, saying he is to delay a decision about his future until March.

BVB have offered Reus, 25, an annual salary of some eight million euros according to kicker, who report that that winning the Bundesliga once and "preferably with Borussia Dortmund rather than Bayern Munich" once would mean much more to the Germany international than five championships in England or Spain.

Speaking to Sportschau on Sunday, Reus said that right now all that matters for him is to return to fitness and make sure Dortmund climb the Bundesliga table.

"It does not matter which contracts run out. It's not about individuals, but about getting out [of] there," the midfielder said.

Reus played 45 minutes in Dortmund's 1-0 friendly victory against Steaua Bucharest on Saturday, his first minutes of football since suffering an ankle injury in late November.

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