Florian Wirtz

Florian Wirtz
Personnel
Surname	Florian Richard Wirtz
birthday	May 3, 2003
place of birth	Pulheim ,  Germany
size	175 cm
position	Attacking midfield
Juniors
Years	station
0000–2011	SV Grün-Weiß Brauweiler
2011-2020	1. FC Cologne
2020–	Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2020–	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	7 (1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
2018	Germany U15	1 (0)
2018-2019	Germany U16	5 (0)
2019–	Germany U17	4 (0)
1 Only league games are given. Status: end of season 2019/20 2 As of February 12, 2020

Florian Richard Wirtz (born May 3, 2003 in Pulheim - Brauweiler ) is a German soccer player . The offensive midfielder has played in the youth and first team of Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen since January 2020 . He made his debut for the first team in May and is the club's youngest ever used player. In addition, he is his youngest goalscorer and also the one in the Bundesliga since it was founded in 1963. Since 2018 he has also been a junior national player of the DFB .

Career

society

Florian Wirtz began his career in the youth of SV Grün-Weiß Brauweiler from Pulheim . In 2011, at the age of eight, he moved to Sülz in the west of Cologne to the RheinEnergieSportpark , which serves as a youth center for 1. FC Köln . In eight and a half years there he was part of various youth teams at Effzeh . With the club's U17 he won the championship in the B-Junior Bundesliga in the 2018/19 season . While the offensive player was almost ignored in the first half of the season, he was used regularly in the second. In total, he played eleven games and contributed three goals and a template to the success of his team, which completed the season West in second place in the table and qualified for the championship finals. In this, Wirtz was set and played all three games over the full season. In the semi-final second leg against FC Bayern Munich he scored the 4-0 final score; in the final they finally beat Borussia Dortmund . In his second year in the B-youth, Wirtz established himself further in the team and became their captain . However, he missed seven of 17 competitive games due to injury. In the ten games he played, he scored nine goals and one assist , his team finished the first half of the 2019/20 season as leaders of the season west.

In January 2020, Wirtz moved to league competitor Bayer 04 Leverkusen . This attracted public attention, as an agreement had existed between 1. FC Köln, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach since 2001, according to which none of the three clubs could remove any of the other youth players from current contracts in order to let them play in their own youth . Bayer 04 argued that Wirtz's contract in Cologne will expire in mid-2020 and that his commitment is access for the first team and the conclusion of a professional contract. Borussia Mönchengladbach's sports director Max Eberl confirmed that this agreement between the three clubs - albeit without any legal obligation - exists; In the case of Wirtz at least he does not see a clear breach of the agreement based on the Leverkusen argumentation and wants to continue to adhere to the regulation. The change actually planned for July 2020 finally took place early on January 31. From February, Wirtz played four games in the West Season, scored two goals and provided three assists until the league's game operations were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their individual situation in Germany .

In mid-May 2020, the midfielder was nominated by head coach Peter Bosz to replace the injured Lars Bender for the Bundesliga game on matchday 26 at Werder Bremen . Previously, Wirtz had traveled with two other A-Juniors from the club and the first team to the mandatory training camp in Wermelskirchen , where they had prepared for the continuation of the season under quarantine conditions. Bosz used him in the game in the starting line-up on the right wing , making Wirtz the club's youngest player in men's football at the age of 17 years and 15 days. At the same time, he became the third-youngest player to ever play in the Bundesliga, behind Nuri Şahin (16 years, 335 days) and Yann Aurel Bisseck (16 years, 362 days). Wirtz played 62 minutes and was then substituted for Karim Bellarabi . From this point on, he was an integral part of the matchday squad. In the following twelve games, he completed eight, of which, as in Bremen, four from the start. His only goal participation was in the 2-4 defeat against FC Bayern Munich on June 6, 2020, the 30th matchday. He scored the goal for the final score at the age of 17 years and 34 days, replacing Şahin, who had held this mark until then, as the youngest scorer in the Bundesliga.

National team

Wirtz has been playing for the DFB's junior team since 2018 . He played his first game for the U15 on May 3, 2018 in the 0-1 defeat against the U15 of the Netherlands . In the same year and that followed, five friendlies for the U16s and nominations for the U17s from October 2019 . So far, he has completed all international matches in the three selections under junior national coach Christian Wück .

Personal

Wirtz was born in May 2003 in the Pulheim district of Brauweiler , grew up there and, after finishing elementary school, attended the city's abbey high school , where he was active for the school's own soccer team and took part in regional tournaments with it. He has two sisters, his father is the first chairman of SV Grün-Weiß Brauweiler . The oldest sister, Juliane , is also a soccer player and is active in the Bayer 04 women's first team and as a junior national player. Both began their careers at their father's club and at 1. FC Köln; Juliane made her debut in the women's Bundesliga in 2018 at the age of 16.

Due to his achievements in the youth field, the German Football Association awarded Wirtz the Fritz Walter Medal in gold in the U17 juniors category in August 2020 .

successes

• German B youth champion : 2019 with 1. FC Köln
• Fritz Walter Gold Medal in the U17 Juniors category : 2020

Web links

• Florian Wirtz in the database of weltfussball.de
• Florian Wirtz in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Florian Wirtz in the database of kicker.de
• Florian Wirtz in the database of the German Football Association

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brauweiler young footballers move to 1. FC Köln ; onlinezeitung.co, July 7, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020
2. ^ Proof of performance from Florian Wirtz for the U17s of 1. FC Köln in the 2018/19 season ; transfermarkt.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
3. ↑ Grading Florian Wirtz for the U17 of the 1. FC Cologne in the season 2019/20 ; transfermarkt.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
4. ↑ ^{a b} Also extremely annoying economically ; rundschau-onlinde.de, January 30, 2020, accessed on May 18, 2020
5. ↑ Is the peace in the Rhineland wobbling because of Bayer? Eberl against wild talent hunt , gladbachlive.de, from February 1, 2020, accessed on May 18, 2020
6. ↑ Kölner Wirtz changes immediately to Bayer 04 ; bayer04.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
7. ↑ Grading Florian Wirtz for the U17 Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2019/20 season ; transfermarkt.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
8. ↑ Bayer 04: Peter Bosz takes Florian Wirtz with him to Bremen , ksta.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
9. ↑ Werkself arrived at the hotel ; bayer04.de, May 11, 2020, accessed on May 18, 2020
10. ↑ Match report Werder Bremen against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on May 18, 2020 ; kicker.de, accessed on May 19, 2020
11. ↑ Wirtz on the podium: The youngest Bundesliga debutants , kicker.de, accessed on May 20, 2020.
12. ↑ Match report Werder Bremen against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on May 18, 2020 ; kicker.de, accessed on May 19, 2020
13. ↑ Grading Florian Wirtz for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2019/20 season ; transfermarkt.de, accessed on August 20, 2020
14. ↑ Leverkusen not an obstacle either: Bayern march on to the title , match report on kicker.de, accessed on June 6, 2020.
15. ↑ Match report Germany U15 against Netherlands U15 from May 3, 2018 ; transfermarkt.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
16. ↑ State winner winner ; anteigymnasium.de, June 8, 2016, accessed on May 19, 2020
17. ↑ Imprint of SV Grün-Weiß Brauweiler ; gwbrauweiler.de, accessed on May 19, 2020
18. ↑ minikicker ; gwbrauweiler.de, accessed on May 18, 2020
19. ^ Fritz Walter Medal: Gold for Florian Wirtz ; bayer04.de, published and accessed on August 19, 2020