Florian Wirtz, a German football player who is 19 years old, has already made a nаme for himself as one of the sport’s young stars. He now plays attacking middle for the German national team and Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.
His birthday is May 3, 2003, and he was born in Pulheim, Germany. In the FC Cologne junior school, he learned how to play football when he was young. He became well-known because of how good he was with the ball and how quickly he could make chances and score goals.
It was Wirtz’s home team, Cologne, that won the Under-17 German Championship in 2019. A nearby newspaper called Kolner Express said Wirtz was the best midfielder the club had seen in thirty years. But Leverkusen won, and they signed him from Cologne in 2020.
Comes from a footballing family
Florian’s dad, Hans-Joachim Wirtz, used to play football in Germany, but only in lower levels. His father and mother, Karin, work for him as agents. Before going to Cologne, Florian played his first few games of football for the local SV Grun-Weiss Brauweiller, where his father is the chairman.
Football is clearly a family activity, and he might have sparked Florian’s love for the game. His family must be huge sports fans, which must have affected how hard he works in some way. Besides that, his sister plays professional football too.
His sister also plays for Leverkusen
The sport is very important to the Wirtz family. You might be surprised to learn that Florian’s older sister Juliane Wirtz works for Bayer Leverkusen’s wоmen‘s team.
When it came to clubs, Florian was the one who tried to be like his older sister. The two of them started playing football with Grun-Weiss Brauweiler when they were young. After that, they moved on to FC Köln and then to Bayer Leverkusen.
In an interview with Leverkusen’s website, Florian was asked about the situation and said, “Even though she is two years older, we were on the same team from the beginning.” After that, though, I quickly switched teams and went from Brauweiler to FC Koln. Not many people in the family have never played football. Because of this, we always have football on TV at home. A lot of bad things happen to us when we play football.
Compared with Kai Havertz
Wirtz is a creative midfielder who can also play as a winger. He has been compared to Kai Havertz, a former teammate who left Bayer Leverkusen to join Chelsea in 2020. The eighteen-year-old has said that Kai Havertz is a model to him.
“Kai is only 21, but he has been showing off his skills at the highest level for many years, winning titles in the Bundesliga, the Champions League, and now the Premier League with Chelsea.” It makes me feel bad to be compared to him when I was 16 or 17. I thought he was thinking, “Why are they comparing me to such a little boy?” A lot of people knew who I was and had never seen me act, so I thought it was strange that everything got so much attention in the news. In a message sent to the club’s website, Wirtz said, “But I’ve always gotten along great with him.”
He then said, “Of course Kai is a role model.” The most important thing I learned from him was how to train, and he also gave me some good tips. Without a question, he was an inspiration to me. I was really happy with his first touch on the ball, which was better than everyone else’s on the team. This meant that he could almost always take advantage of chances in front of goal and put himself in the best place to receive passes.
After Havertz left, the 19-year-old took over the number 10 spot from his predecessor and made it his own by slowly making his way into the first team.
Idolises Messi
It was said by Wirtz that Lionel Messi is his hero. The Argentine player made his GOAT status even stronger at the most recent World Cup. He was a joy to watch and was the main reason why the Albiceleste finally won after a long time.
When asked about his first jersey, Wirtz told Sky Sports Germany in April 2022, “Messi’s Argentina jersey.”
When I was a little kid, he was the best player in the world. For years, I looked at videos of him and wished I could be like him.
Due to the clear similarities in how they play, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Wirtz has great hopes for Messi. Both players are left-footed and have great athletic skills. They can play anywhere in the front line or as оffensive midfielders. They are dangerous because they are good with both feet, have great awareness, and can dribble.
Xabi Alonso, the manager of Leverkusen, played against Messi directly when he was at Real Madrid. Because of how close their movements are, Alonso has said that Messi and Wirtz are like brothers.
The second youngest ever goal-scorer in Bundesliga history
At just 17 years and 34 days old, Wirtz scored his first goal for Bayer Leverkusen in a 4-2 loss to Bayern Munich. He set a Bundesliga record for being the youngest player to score a goal. In November 2005, Nuri Sahin set the previous record. At 17 and 82 days, Wirtz beаt it. The record would be broken by Youssoufa Moukoko, a 16-year-old from Dortmund.
A professional football player’s first goal is often an event that sticks out in their mind. Wirtz’s skill with the ball in just his fourth Bundesliga game showed that he had almost unlimited potential.
Serial Record Breaker
Wirtz is a real football talent who has come a long way in the game. He was smarter and better at what he did than his coworkers. As you may have already guessed, he has broken a number of records in his short time so far.
As was already said, Wirtz beаt Havertz to become the youngest player to play his first game for Leverkusen in the league. He also scored the youngest goal in the German top division.
Wirtz was the first player in league history to score five goals before turning eighteen in February 2021. Also, he was the youngest player in Bundesliga history (under 19 years old) to score more than 10 goals in a single season.
On December 15, 2021, in a 2-2 draw against Hoffenheim, he became the youngest player in German football history to play 50 games. He was 18 years and 2 days old at the time. He was named to the Bundesliga Team of the Season for the 2021–22 season.
Two-time Fritz Walter medal winner
Wirtz won the Fritz Walter medal after an amazing first Bundesliga season and was hailed as Germany’s best young player in the under-17 division in 2020. He was widely seen as one of the country’s most potential young players. He got the award again in 2020, but this time in the U19 class.
“There’s no doubt that it felt good.” I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on it so much. My long-term goal was to get this award. At the award ceremony, Wirtz said, “Receiving this recognition holds great significance for me.”
It is known that the Fritz Walter Medal, named after the leader of West Germany’s 1954 World Cup-winning team, is the best award for players in German youth football (U19, U17, and U18). Past great players, like Kai Havertz, Antonio Rudiger, and Manuel Neuer, have also won the award.
Turned down Leverkusen as a young kid
While Wirtz was still a young player for Grun-Weiss Brauweiler, he was told that he would get a spot in Leverkusen’s youth teams. Still, he chose to go to Cologne first to take the next step in his growth.
Later, Simon Rolfes, the sports director of Leverkusen, said that he was enthralled by the Brauweiler-born star when he saw Wirtz for the first time when he was 13.
“I understand why ‘FC’ fans were let down and are still mаd about it.” In an interview with Bild, Wirtz talked about his choice to move from Cologne to Leverkusen. “I feel very at home there,” he said.
“I had to think about my point of view and my future. Now that I look back, I think I made the right choice.” “FC” was so far away that I wasn’t even thinking about playing professional football at that time, Wirtz said.
In the end, Wirtz and Leverkusen were meant to be together because he couldn’t sаy no to the German powerhouses the second time around and decided to play at BayArena, which has worked out well so far.
School comes first
One day, a professional football player, and the next, a student. Every teen has dreamed of having something like this to show off. For Wirtz, it was a fact. Because he was so good at football, he was already a professional player in high school.
He played a lot for Leverkusen and missed a Europa League game against Slavia Prague because he had to study. In March 2021, the young player was with the adult national team. Because he was studying for his A-Levels, he had to bring a teacher with him. That story was really interesting. Wirtz puts school first, but it hasn’t been easy at all to balance the two.
“I have to sаy that doing both at the same time is very hard.” I know I need to work just as hard оn schoolwork and football, even though football is my stronger sport. That being said, I know I don’t have much time left to finish school, so I can’t give up so quickly,” Wirtz told the German Football Association in 2021.
Barcelona is his dream club
With his exploits at such a tender age, Wirtz has surely caught the eye of Europe’s elite sides given he’s a high-ceiling, high-potential talent, and should the highly-rated midfielder want to take the step to a bigger club in the future, he would reportedly prefer a move to Barcelona.
“I’ve always wаnted to play for Barcelona since I was a little lad. In an interview with Sport Bild, Wirtz said, “I still have some time until then, but nothing has changed in this regard.”
Varied off-field interests
Off the field, Wirtz is an equally animated individual. He may be seen participating in a variety of water sports on his vacations, such as jet skiing, boating, and swimming on German beaches. In addition, he enjoys traveling, reading, playing pool, and playing video games like FIFA. He was once seen at a gas station with a black Mercedes-Benz, which is one of his favorite automobiles.
Boasts a classy fashion sense ️
In addition to having a fantastic sense of style, Wirtz has a history of being involved in fashion, both on and off the field. He’s been seen sporting some stylish attire. He has been spotted sporting fashionable attire such as sneakers, denim jackets, and slim-fit suits.
Adidas, one of the biggest athletic brands worldwide, is Wirtz’s sponsor. As part of his endorsement agreement with the firm, he has been spotted wearing Adidas apparel and footwear both on and off the field. He has also been in many of the company’s promotional films.
All of the information shown above is available on his Instagram.
In-demand talent
The young player’s current deal at Leverkusen expires in2027, but it doesn’t seem probable that he will stay at the club for the remainder of it. Leverkusen have carved out a place for themselves by raising up-and-coming talent and then peddling it to European power brokers for massive revenues.
The Wirtz family, meanwhile, does not appear to be easily swayed by more generous offers from rival teams. The best teams in Europe have been making bids for a while now, and if Leverkusen is not selected for the European football league this year, those offers will probably come in higher.
The Leverkusen leadership and supporters are delighted to hear that Wirtz’s father, Hans-Joachim, is also his son’s agent.
“Florian and Bayer are bound by a long-term deal. Hans-Joachim recently stated, “We want to fulfill as much of it as we can. “Of course, every young player wants to play with the best but until the Euros in 2024 Florian is best placed at Leverkusen.”