Nils Petersen will retire as a professional football player after this season. The 34-year-old striker from SC Freiburg once entered Bayern Munich as the top scorer of the Second Bundesliga and is now waving off as Germany’s best super sub of the highest level.
The Bundesliga’s top super-sub retires from football
It was the summer of 2011 when Bayern paid 2.8 million euros to Energie Cottbus to take over Petersen. The attacker, then 22 years old, had become the top scorer of the second level with 25 goals. His stay at Bavaria was not a success, but Petersen recovered at Werder Bremen and then became a highly valued force at Freiburg, with which he was promoted to the Bundesliga in 2016.
Petersen, now at Freiburg, was crowned club top scorer in no fewer than five seasons. His best season was 2017/18, when he made fifteen appearances at the highest level and even made his debut for Germany under Joachim Löw. In total, Petersen has scored 104 times in 270 games for Freiburg so far.
It is remarkable that Petersen scored a large part of his goals as a substitute. The attacker scored no less than 33 times after he was brought within the lines during a match. This makes him the king of the super subs. Claudio Pizarro follows in Bundesliga history with 21 goals as a substitute.
Bale emotional by farewell to Wales: “He went to play golf first”
Talking about goodbyes, Gareth Bale received a nice farewell from the Welsh national team on Tuesday evening. The fans gave the 33-year-old star of yesteryear a thunderous applause for the kick-off of the European Championship qualifying match with Latvia (1-0).
Bale put behind his career after the World Cup in Qatar and was present in Cardiff on Tuesday to wave goodbye to the Welsh fans. They gave the record international (111 international matches) and all-time top scorer (41 goals) a warm welcome. That’s how Viva Gareth Bale sounded through the Cardiff City Stadium.
Bale was visibly moved by all that affection and expressed his gratitude in his farewell speech. “It has been a huge honor to represent this country and play in front of the best fans in the world. You have always supported me and my family, I will miss playing for you,” he concluded.
Golf
Bale had already said goodbye to the internationals on Monday evening when he joined the dinner party. National coach Rob Page revealed, “I think he went for another round of golf today. And before the game he came to say hello to the boys in the dressing room.”
Page thought the nice farewell for Bale was more than deserved. He continued, “It was a big decision for him to retire. We all know what it means to him to represent his country. To have this moment tonight must have been very special to him.”
