and country. His reward for such sterling
efforts was the best-in-class rosette in
the national under-17 player of the year
category. The runner-up in that 2013 poll
was Julian Brandt, now an attacking star
for Dortmund and Germany.
“Timo has extraordinary ability,” gushed
then Stuttgart director of sport Fredi
Bobic. “He has the directness, the nose
for goal opportunities, speed and great
finishing.” And his boss with the German
under-17s, Stefan Boger, agreed: “Timo
is a natural taker of chances, is good
athletically and is tremendously quick.”
It was undoubtedly Werner’s good
fortune to learn his chops at Stuttgart.
The Swabians in white-and-red have an
excellent tradition for cutting in-house
gems and it’s no coincidence that the
current Germany squad contains no
fewer than three VfB academy graduates:
Werner plus the Bayern duo of winger
Serge Gnabry and full-back cum
midfielder Joshua Kimmich.
Werner and Kimmich have known
each other since their early teens. They
went to the same high school in Stuttgart,
Wirtemberg-Gymnasium, and remain the
best of friends.
“Timo always has had lots of goals in
him,” said Kimmich at a German national
team press conference just before the
last World Cup. “Playing alongside him,
I never had an instance when he did not
end up the top scorer in a championship
or tournament. He’s an absolute weapon.”
In the 2013 close season the initial
Stuttgart plan was to not rush things
with the then 17-year-old and let him
concentrate on his final year of high
school and only deploy him with the
under-19s. Yet somehow, some way, the
programme never was implemented.
Werner was too exciting a prospect to
be denied, definitively convincing coach
Bruno Labbadia with a late supersub
goal – with his weaker left foot – in
a friendly win against Turkish club
Belediyespor in late July.
On a baking hot afternoon in thesouthern German city of Friedrichshafen
this was the moment his career well and
truly received its launch code. No
wonder his father Gunther, watching in
the stands, jumped up in delight. Here
was the ice-breaker: his son’s first senior
team goal and pro ticket to ride.
“Timo had been dreaming of this
goal,” his dad would later tell reporters.
“I’m so pleased for him.”
A string of first-team appointments
duly followed: a Europa League start
versus Botev Plovdiv; an end-of-match
cameo against Dynamo Berlin in the DFB
Cup; then his Bundesliga debut, coming
on as a late substitute in a 1-0 home loss
to Leverkusen and in doing so becoming
VfB’s youngest-ever German top-flight
player at 17 years and 164 days.
“I would have picked him for the team
when he was 16 if league statures had
allowed it,” said Labbadia.
Remarkably poised and fearless for
one so young, he continued to catch the
eye. In September 2013 he started his
first Bundesliga game for Stuttgart,
marking the occasion with two assists in
a 6-2 thumping of Hoffenheim. Three
weeks later, he opened his top-flight
goalscoring account, heading in theSuper sub...set to
be released from
the bench