Florian Wirtz: The Bayer Leverkusen and Germany schemer at home among Ballon d'Or contenders
Florian Wirtz is living a life beyond his wildest dreams after a brilliant season with Bayer Leverkusen was rewarded with a richly deserved 2024 Ballon d'Or nomination.
"On my 18th birthday, my mother showed me a note from my time at primary school. We had to write down what we wanted to be. The only thing I'd written was: football player," Wirtz said three years ago. A little further down the line, he is a Bundesliga and DFB Cup champion, a central star for a young and dynamic Germany team, and among the 30 2024 Ballon d'Or candidates.
"I really did always want [to play football] and started early on to kick everything I came across: balloons, balls and anything else lying around the house. There was a lot flying about at our place." His obsession with the game from a tender age - Wirtz says he started to play when he was three - has led to the now 21-year-old overcoming serious obstacles and making those who watch him rejoice in his spectacular contributions to Bayer 04 and Germany's fast-paced, attacking styles.
Watch: The best of Florian Wirtz in 2024/25 so far
The Bundesliga Player of the Season was also the UEFA Europa League Young Player of the Season for the second season running, with the Werkself's remarkable double-winning campaign almost turning into a titanic treble following a run to the final of European Club football's second competition.
It often beggars belief that Wirtz is still as young as he is. It can sometimes seem that the man from the small town of Pulheim in western Germany has had two careers to date.
Once a youth-team star at Cologne, the attacking midfielder made his Bundesliga debut for Leverkusen back in May 2020. He battled through a morale-sapping cruciate ligament injury to once again reach the heights he was enjoying before that setback. There was the UEFA Under-21 Championship success with Germany in 2021, and Fritz Walter Medal wins at U17 and U19 level before that.
Watch: Wirtz named Bundesliga's best in 2023/24
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Missing the 2022 FIFA World Cup with that aforementioned knee injury - coincidentally sustained against Cologne in March of that year - could easily have shattered Wirtz's self confidence, yet here he now stands, among the 30 nominees for the game's biggest individual prize: the Ballon d'Or.
"I can't think of anything better than being on the pitch in the Bundesliga on Saturday at 3.30 in the afternoon. Perhaps I have missed out on a couple of things on the way to that but, on the other hand, football enables me to have a different and really great life," he said.
Wirtz's enthusiasm as an 18-year-old still shines through today. His place among the game's current stars is thanks to a season like no other for both the player and Bayer 04.
During Leverkusen's barely believable unbeaten domestic run to double success, Wirtz produced 29 goal involvements. He added 11 assists to his 11 goals in the 2023/24 Bundesliga and a further three goals and four assists en route to DFB Cup glory. Bayer ultimately lost out to Atalanta in the Europa League, but it was a tournament in which Wirtz excelled, netting four goals and setting up another four as Xabi Alonso's side reached the Dublin showpiece.
"I feel extremely valued under him; I feel his trust," Wirtz said of Alonso, the coach under whom the Leverkusen No.10 has continued to thrive. "That's really important to me, especially as a young player. Xabi gives me a lot of freedom on the pitch and always has a tip on how I can improve."
Once asked how far he could go in the game, Wirtz responded with a laugh: "I dream big," he responded. These days, opponents are rarely smiling as the player pirouettes his way past them on his way to achieving his impressive targets.
His is a game played with unrestrained joy. "I put very little pressure on myself when I'm on the pitch; I just enjoy myself when I play football," Wirtz explained when questioned about the demands of being out there in the spotlight.
The most dangerous midfielder in the Bundesliga last season - when he appeared in 32 out of 34 games of the title-winning campaign - his personal-best haul of goals for a top-flight season was combined with a team-high average of 7.64 miles/ 12.3 kilometres run per game and 714 duels contested. Of the latter, Wirtz's 46 per cent of duels won was the third-best in the entire division.
An historic season at club level preceded Germany's participation in their home UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, where Wirtz scored twice as hosts made it to the quarter-finals. After a short, end-of-season break, the gifted attacker admitted, "I felt like I couldn't wait to come back to the team and play football again."
Picking up where he left off, Wirtz was there winning yet another trophy with with Leverkusen - the Supercup - and producing last-gasp, game-winning feats with a double against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Another goal for Germany in the UEFA Nations League victory against Hungary demonstrated that Wirtz is currently loving life and the sport he always dreamed of playing at the highest level.
Whether or not he picks up the gong at the the 68th edition of the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in Paris at the end of October, Wirtz has already won over the footballing world.
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