Florian Wirtz made Bundesliga history on Saturday (June 6) when his strike against Bayern Munich made him the youngest-ever goalscorer in the competition’s history.
The seventeen-year-old Bayern Leverkusen striker scored during his side’s 2-4 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Bay Arena. The attacker has now become the youngest player to score in the Bundesliga at 17 years and 34 days, beating the record previously set by Nuri Sahin who was 17 years and two months of age when he netted his first goal for Dortmund, in 2005.
Lucas Alario had given Leverkusen the lead on ten minutes but Bayern hit back to take a 4-1 lead through goals from Kingsley Coman, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski before Wirtz enjoyed his history-making moment.
Wirtz made his debut on May 18 in Leverkusen’s 4-1 victory over Werder Bremen, breaking Kai Havertz’s record as the club’s youngest Bundesliga debutant. He has been at Leverkusen since January 2020 after switching from Cologne.
The youngster has had no shortage of suitors both in Germany and elsewhere and this latest feat has brought renewed interest.
“The boy has a huge talent. He could have gone to Liverpool, to Bayern Munich, to Dortmund. Everyone wanted the boy,” Leverkusen youth coach, Patrick Helmes, told Sport1 after Wirtz’s arrival.
“What he has are things you cannot learn.”
Leverkusen’s sporting director Simon Rolfes also spoke about the team’s luck in acquiring the young German player and his emergence on the big stage.
“I have known the player since he was 14. The possibility arose surprisingly because his contract was expiring, and so we tried,” told Goal and SPOX.
“I knew that many clubs were interested and so we thought that before he went anywhere else, let’s try to get him to come here and stay close to home,” he said.
