“Biggest mistake” by the Brazilian
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Central defender Felipe Santana played 113 times for Borussia Dortmund and made himself immortal with his last-minute goal in the Champions League quarter-final against Málaga before moving to rivals FC Schalke 04 in the summer of 2013. A decision that the 38-year-old would probably make differently today.
“I wanted to be a regular player again so that I could apply for the national team,” said the ex-professional in the “Quarter Hour Football” podcast of his former Dortmund teammate Kevin Großkreutz (36). “In the end it was a lot of stress. I just thought: What have I done?”
Felipe Santana, looking back, described the choice of S04 as the “biggest mistake” of his career. His teammates at BVB apparently couldn’t understand the transfer at all at the time. “All the boys were angry about the change at the time.” The right-footed player moved from his native Brazil from Figueirense FC to Dortmund in 2008 for 2.1 million euros, but he was never able to play a permanent role with the black and yellow team. Five years later, the Royal Blues bought him for one million euros.
Felipe Santana experienced “a completely different atmosphere than at BVB”
Felipe Santana played 32 games for S04 before his departure in January 2016, and in the meantime he was loaned out to Olympiacos Piraeus in Greece. At the beginning of 2024 he drew a line and ended his career. “Nothing against the Schalke 04 club, but it was a completely different atmosphere than at BVB,” said Felipe Santana. For him, Borussia Dortmund was “like a school, I learned everything there.” The Brazilian did not play more competitive games for any club; he was champion twice and cup winner once. Contrary to what he had hoped, he remained completely outside of the Seleção even after his Schalke transfer.
Felipe Santana is one of a group of seven footballers who have made the move from BVB to S04 since the Bundesliga was founded. Among them was Andreas Möller, who switched sides in 2000 at the age of 32 on the initiative of manager Rudi Assauer. “Schalke, that was the opportunity to finally shed my wimp image,” Möller once revealed. The playmaker, unlike Felipe Santana, should not regret his transfer.
