Felipe Santana moved from Borussia Dortmund to Schalke 04 in 2013. In retrospect, the defender describes this move as his “biggest mistake”.

Of the 24 players who have appeared for both Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, he is the last: Felipe Santana. The now 38-year-old Brazilian came to BVB from his native Brazil in 2008. Five years later, the center back, who has since ended his playing career, transferred to the rival club from Gelsenkirchen.

A decision that Santana now regrets. “I wanted to be a regular player again to apply for the national team,” he said in Kevin Großkreutz’s podcast “Viertelstunde Fussball”. “But in the end, it was a very stressful time. I just thought: What did I do?”

His BVB teammates apparently showed no understanding for the decision. Above all, Santana attracted the displeasure of the self-confessed Schalke hater Großkreutz. “All the guys were angry back then because of the switch. Kevin still insults me sometimes because of that.”

Whereby Großkreutz put it into perspective in the podcast: “Everyone makes mistakes, you know that. It was a big mistake, but that’s part of it. Still, you’ve got to say you’re a good person, always in a good mood, that’s why I like you. I’ve made mistakes too. That’s why Felipe’s not a bad person, on the contrary, he’s a great person.”

Großkreutz and Santana spent four years together at BVB. During this time, they celebrated two championships, one DFB Cup victory and a place in the Champions League final. On the way there, Santana had his greatest moment in the BVB jersey. In the quarter-final second leg against FC Malaga, he scored the celebrated winning goal in injury time.

But Santana was never a regular in the BVB lineup. That was supposed to change with the move to Schalke. Santana also wanted to make a case for a nomination for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil with the Royal Blues. The plan did not work out. After an interim loan to Greece and a total of two and a half years, Santana left Schalke.

Today he says: “Nothing against Schalke 04, but it was a completely different atmosphere than at BVB.” Dortmund was like a school for him: “I met great teammates there and also learned everything I know about German culture.”