It is about 14 years ago, at the time of writing, that 28-year-old Dante Bonfirm Costa Santos, better known as just Dante, signed for Bayern Munich from Borussia Mönchengladbach for around 4 million euros. The transfer market was different then, eh? Funnily enough, current Bayern board member for sport Max Eberl was BMG’s sporting director at the time. His first season at Bayern saw him solidify a spot in the starting lineup as manager Josef “Jupp” Heynckes inspired the Bavarians to roar back from a soul
crushing 2011/12 season to secure the treble in 2o13.
Josep Guardiola came in after Heynckes, though, and was not the biggest fan of the Brazilian despite his infamous wish for 1000 Dantes. He was offloaded to VFL Wolfsburg in 2015, but he only lasted a year at the club before being offloaded to OGC Nice. After being on the wrong end of Germany’s 7-1 thrashing of Brazil in the 2014 World Cup and then, a year later, being on the wrong end of Robert Lewandowski’s 5 goals in 9 minutes before being offloaded to France at 32, many believed the defender’s career was coming to an end by the time of his move in 2o16.
That was not the case at all. He became the French club’s rock at the back and arguably their most important player, assuming the captain’s armband in 2017 and staying an entire decade at Nice, helping them consistently challenge for Europe. Now nearing his 43rd birthday in October, Dante has finally decided to call time on his career. In truth, his body was giving out on him as four separate injuries saw him miss huge chunks of the season. A late calf injury saw him miss matches 29-33 and threatened to see him see out the end of his career carrying an injury.
Late season drama
Nice’s abnormally poor league season saw fall into the bottom half of the league before a truly horrendous run of form to close out the season saw them drop all the way to 16th in the table. In the 18 team Ligue 1 McDonald’s, just like the Bundesliga, the 16th placed team competes in a relegation playoff against the 3rd placed team in the division below, which was Saint-Etienne this past season. However, Nice had also managed to navigate their way to the Coupe de France final, where they would face RC Lens.
This meant that, from May 22 to May 29 while most teams were heading off to their summer break, Nice would contest two relegation playoff matches against Saint-Etienne and RC Lens in the final of the Coup de France, starting with the match against Lens.
Coupe de France final
Dante had to fight off that recent calf injury to participate in these matches and perhaps that injury was still affecting Nice’s captain as a few crucial errors from Dante ended with a 3-1 Lens victory.
Relegation playoffs
Perhaps the calf was still bothering Dante, because, 4 days later, he was not in the squad for Nice’s 0-0 away draw to Saint-Etienne. He would, however, return for Les Aiglons in the return match and captained the side to one last victory, blowing their opponents away 4-1 to secure another season in the Ligue 1 for Nice.
Now what?
What will Dante do following his retirement? It is an open secret, at this point in time, that Dante will return to Munich to become the U-23’s head coach for the 2026/27 season. The Brazilian has already earned all the coaching licenses he would need for the job and will bring all the experience of his entire career, spanning over two decades, with him. It will be intriguing to see how Dante will handle the job.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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