Spielmacher (2018)

After serving a prison sentence—later suggested to have been for match-fixing—the former footballer Ivo wants to make a fresh start. However, he cannot find a regular job. Football is still his passion, but a patellar tendon injury means he can no longer play himself, so he tries his hand at football betting. At the Majstori betting arcade, the ruthless crime boss Dejan notices him and quickly draws him back into criminal dealings with a bet Ivo loses. Ivo is supposed to help him fix lower-league football matches so the Chinese can optimize betting results. Meanwhile, at the youth football club where he once played, S.C. Union von 1903 e.V., Ivo meets young player Lukas and his mother, nurse Vera, through his old coach, Hermann Brunner, who is now ill. Ivo becomes a mentor to Lukas and starts a relationship with his mother. He is constantly torn between his new, clean life with Lukas and Vera and his role in the betting syndicate. When Dejan eventually wants to involve Lukas in match-fixing as well, Ivo has to act. After a BVB match at Signal Iduna Park, he gives Lukas a stern talking-to, urging him not to give in to Dejan, and gives him his old jersey. Lukas rejects the match-fixing and wins the game with his team. In this connection, Ivo has joined forces with Dejan’s contact. For a while, it seems as though the contact has betrayed Ivo to Dejan, but in the end Dejan falls victim to the “silent blade” at the hands of the Chinese. Ivo donates the proceeds from this deal to his coach and Vera.