BIOGRAPHY
Stuttgart, signing his first professional
contract with VfB on his 18th birthday
in March 2014.
Werner’s desire to stay put was as
logical as it was emotional. A first-teamer
for just nine months, he rightly concluded
that, with his apprenticeship far from
complete, continuity was his best course
of action. He was a VfB fan too, born in
the same Stuttgart district, Bad Canstatt,
as the club’s Mercedes-Benz Arena. The
ties that bound were tight as he had
been with VfB since he was six, joining
them in 2002 from the little-league
ranks of local outfit TSV Steinhaldenfeld.
“VfB is my club,” he explained at the
time. “I’ve been here since I was little.
“I’ve come through all the different age
categories and feel really comfortable
here. I want to carry on learning and
am happy to do that here.”
For those with their finger on the
pulse of German football, Werner’s
rise to the upper echelons was no real
surprise. Growing up he was the golden
child turned platinum youth, an elite
stripling who could not help but be
noticed. On the Stuttgart nursery slopeshe was the one who never lost his
balance, contributing a goal a game
(24 in all) as the under-17s clinched
the German title in 2012 and netting no
fewer than 24 goals for the under-18s
the following season.
Frieder Schrof, who was head of
youth development at VfB for three
decades before retiring last year, painted
a telling anecdotal picture in a piece
in Kicker magazine, revealing: “Every
weekend the youth department at VfB
would produce internal bulletins on the
performances of our various teams. Next
to Timo’s name there invariably would be
a three, a four or a six in brackets.
“Even as a little boy he was the one
who scored the most goals.”
Werner was also a pillar of German
representative sides, proving especially
productive for the under-17s, with 16
goals in 18 appearances, and the
under-19s, nine goals in 11 games.
In an unforgettable 2012-13 season
he was such a valuable commodity to
the German federation that he played
for both the under-17s and under-19s. It
was an incredible campaign in every way,
with the youngster piling up 43 goals in
41 games in all competitions for club€60million and is a man of many parts:
one of the speediest players in the
world, able to play through the middle
or out wide on the left, boasting an
extraordinary aptitude for converting
chances – 27 goals in all competitions
for RB this season – and increasingly
adept in the assist department.
You can trust “TurboTimo” in more or
less all red-zone circumstances. Having
only turned 24 in March, he is the
gunslinger who is quicker on the draw
than his shadow. Nor is he merely a
sprinter cum finisher. He is technically
strong, robust and has plenty of game
awareness to boot.
Werner has a long history of dealing
with headhunters. During his rookie
season as a Stuttgart first-teamer – he
was just 17 years and four months old
when making his debut for the club in a
Europa League tie against Botev Plovdiv
in August 2013 – he was already on the
radar of Real Madrid, Barcelona, BorussiaDortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, while
German giants Bayern Munich had been
seriously scouting him for even longer,
regularly checking out his performances
for Stuttgart’s youth sides.
Bayern sporting director at the time,
and a connoisseur of football talent with
the highest standards, Matthias Sammer
was determined to bring him in. And he
very much fancied his chances of doing
so, only for the teenager to dig in his
heels and insist on remaining withFan...he supported
Stuttgart as a boyNational set-up...(back row, circled) with the German under-15 squad in November 2010Honour...he won the
Fritz Walter Medal in
2013 for Germany’s
best under-17“VfB is my club. I’ve been here since I
was little...I want to carry on learning
and am happy to do that here”
On resisting the lure of Bayern Munich