Where is Andre Schurrle now? Former Chelsea star who retired at 29 now lives very different life

Chelsea have had their fair share of successful and unsuccessful signings over the years.

In the last couple of decades, there have been some high-profile, high-budget misteps, but Andre Schurrle was not one of them, even if he didn’t quite live up to the billing in West London. The German was signed from Bayer Leverkusen on an £18million deal, and he went on to spend two years at Stamford bridge, scoring 11 Premier League goals in 44 appearances out wide.

Schurrle did end up falling out of favour sooner than hoped, but he played a quarter of the games as part of Chelsea’s Premier League title-winning team in 2014/15, and during his time at the club, he won the World Cup with Germany. But what happened to the winger after he left Stamford Bridge?

We take a look at his unusual story below.

Life after Chelsea

Schurrle left Chelsea to return to Germany in 2015, with Chelsea making a £4million profit.

The winger continued a very similar record with new club Wolfsburg, scoring 10 goals in 43 league appearances, and that secured him a move to Borussia Dortmund 18 months or so later. Schurrle scored just three times in his first season with Dortmund, and he completed two loan spells, one with Fulham and the other with Spartak Moscow.

After injury troubles with Spartak, he returned to Dortmund in 2020 and mutually agreed to terminate his contract with the German giants.

What happened next?

Schurrle decided to end his career after leaving Dortmind, despite being aged just 29.

Asked why he retired so early, the World Cup winner stated he “no longer wanted to face the loneliness and endless competition inherent in top-flight football.” Evidently, he had enough of being a player, and having won two German cups, a Premier League and a German Super Cup at cup level, he walked away from the game. The winger also managed 57 caps at senior level for Germany, winning the World Cup and finishing third at Euro 2012.

What is Schurrle up to now?

Schurrle now practises the Wim Hof method, which sees him put his body through extremely low temperatures. As part of that, he recently climbed Sniezka mountains, the highest point of the Czech Republic - at 1,603 meters above sea level - and he did it topless.

Speaking after the feat, he wrote on Instagram: “The last minutes I couldn’t feel anything and I had to find something very deep within me to keep going. An experience I will never forget! -19 degrees, 100 km/h wind in our faces, heavy snow, and rain. What I learned... my body and I are stronger than I thought if I put my mind and soul into it I can do anything.”