Observers expected to be the Italian Dario Scudieri one of the most prominent weapons of Borussia Dortmund, but fate wanted something else. The player's career ended before he started, barely at 21.
The beginning of the story was on 14 September 2016, when the Dortmund youth player took part in a match against Liga Warsaw. Suddenly, after a fight in the penalty area, the player bowed to the ground with a twist of the leg muscle. A few days later, the club announced the result of a medical examination that showed that the knee was completely damaged, requiring nine full operations of the player so as not to amputate the leg.
Since then, this young man has tried to overcome his injury, with doctors urging him to stay away. He eventually decided to retire this season as his contract with Dortmund ended.
| Scudery forced to retire - not more than 21 (Getty Images) |
"No one can tell what will happen in the world of football, so I have chosen the safe path," Skudery told the Rüh Nakhchten newspaper in western Germany.
Dortmund, for his part, refused to let the player face his ordeal alone, offering him a seat in the club's football academy, which Scudyre confirmed to the paper, "Dortmund has always stood by me.
Scudderi had previously played for Italy under the age of 19. After injury, he played for Dortmund in the summer of 2018 in a friendly match for the under-23s. Twenty minutes later he was replaced, and this was his last game as a professional player.