Werder Bremen legend Claudio Pizarro has backed former teammate Josh Sargent to weigh in with plenty of goals for the Green-Whites in the months and years ahead.

Pizzaro was something of a mentor to Sargent, who moved to Bremen at 18 from his US homeland in February 2018. The two forwards played in the same team on only a handful of occasions, but spent plenty of time together on the training pitch before Piza retired from the game at the end of the 2019/20 season, aged 41.

The Peruvian - a scorer of 197 goals in 490 Bundesliga appearances across a playing career spanning over two decades - says Sargent was the perfect student.

"I was able to show him a few things, and he always understood what I meant," Pizarro recalled in an interview with Bremen fan site DeichStube. "He has the natural instinct of a goalscorer."

"You're so embarrassing, Pops!" Sargent (l.) has previously described Pizarro (r.) as "a father figure". - imago images / Nordphoto

There is no better example of Sargent's innate nose for goal than his stunning solo effort against Augsburg on Matchday 3 of the 2019/20 campaign.

Expertly bringing a measured pass over the top of the Augsburg defence from Nuri Sahin under wraps, Sargent proceeded to nonchalantly flick the ball over onrushing goalkeeper Tomas Koubek, before poking into the empty net in one audaciously fluid fell swoop.

The ball didn't even touch the ground.

Watch: Josh Sargent's Bergkamp-esque wonder goal

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It is one of six goals he has scored in 43 Bundesliga appearances to date, though it is only since the start of 2020/21 that he has become a first-team regular under Werder head coach Florian Kohfeldt.

The flame-haired forward was on target in the DFB Cup first-round win over Jena, and has an assist to show for his five successive league starts in the Bremen attack this term.

Pizarro is confident further goals are just around the corner: "Josh has a lot about him. I think he'll score a lot of goals this season."

As the second highest foreign-born goalscorer in Bundesliga history after Robert Lewandowski, Pizarro is well placed to judge.

He is the first and only player to score in 21 successive calendar years in the Bundesliga, and the oldest in the division's 57-year existence.

The six-time Bundesliga winner is also the only man to have tallied more than 80 German top-flight goals for two different clubs: 87 for Bayern Munich and a club-record 109 over the course of his four spells with Bremen.

Watch: A Claudio Pizarro masterclass

It's still very early days for 20-year-old Sargent, but the 12-time, five-goal US international could be the man to rewrite the Green-White history books.

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