The last Meisterschale not won by Bayern Munich was lifted by a very young number ten. What could have been a generational champion like Mario Gotze. He was twenty years old, he seemed unstoppable. A champion in the making, already the balance of power of an almost unbeatable team, ready for the biggest stages with Germany. It must be said that it seems incredible to talk about him as a Carneade, given that he scored a decisive goal in a World Cup final. As far as it seemed possible, Gotze did not do what was thought he could: he now plays in a decent team like Eintracht Frankfurt, but without being that extraordinary something seen in the first years.
Florian Wirtz is the same age. The same possibility of dragging Germany, ten years later. Even if the stage is not the World Cup, but only the European Championship. In your own home, therefore with a different value. Wirtz was the symbol of Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen: a total player from midfield up, also capable of defending when necessary, but assists and goals are his daily bread.
All this also passing through a serious injury like the one two years ago, with a cruciate injury that had stopped him for months and had brought Bayer into the tunnel of nightmares, in penultimate place in the Bundesliga. Then Xabi Alonso found his number ten again. The dualism with Musiala is practically a given for the next few years. Florian Wirtz turns 21 today.
