World Soccer - UK 2020-05)

Munich and Germany playmaker Mehmet
Scholl, who intimated that the youngster
was already in the national-team waiting
room. “Maybe he’ll be at the World Cup
[Brazil 2014] next year,” declared Scholl
on the ARD network. “Other countries
simply do not have such players.”
Scholl’s prediction would prove wide
of the mark as Bundestrainer Joachim
Low was never likely to drag such a raw,
inexperienced youngster away from his
exams. But who could blame Scholl for
getting carried away with the hyperbole.
The kid was special.
As far as senior national-team honours
were concerned he would have to be
patient and was forced to wait until March
2017 for this particular rite of passage,
winning his first cap in a 1-0 friendly win
over England in Dortmund in March 2017.
The reasons it took so long to make the

breakthrough are straightforward

enough: he was still a little wet behind

the ears and inconsistent; the hype was

a tremendous burden, with too much

expected of him; and in all his three

years in the Stuttgart first team the club

were perennial strugglers, eventually

falling through the Bundesliga relegation

trapdoor in the spring of 2016.

Against such a dysfunctional backdrop,

it was hardly shocking that he found it

difficult to play to his potential.

Moving to RB Leipzig in the summer

of 2016 – joining them in a €10m deal

• was the best possible outcome for
  Werner. He was the snuggest of fits for
  the extraordinarily ambitious Leipziger.
  Not only was he young, vibrant, versatile
  and self-possessed, his turf-devouring
  speed was made to measure for RB’s
  quick transition style.
  “Timo is so quick he can turn off
  the light in his room and be in his bed
  before it turns dark,” joked RB coach/
  director of sport Ralf Rangnick.
  Werner’s opening gambit with RB, in
  2016-17, proved to be one of glorious
  vindication. He scored 21 top-flight
  goals that campaign to end up as the
  best German finisher in the Bundesliga
  and had the satisfaction of playing a vital
  role in RB’s first-ever Champions League
  qualification, via the runners-up spot in
  the league. He also finally broke into the
  national team set-up.
  He could do no wrong, and just to
  cap a wonderful phase he delivered the
  goods in his country’s triumph at the
  Confederations Cup in Russia, where he
  scored three goals and made two others.
  Germany would not have won the
  tournament without him. The Golden

SEP 22,2013
Becomes Stuttgart’s
youngest-ever scorer
with a goal against
Eintracht Frankfurt.

NOV 10, 2013

Scores twice in a 3–1

win over Freiburg

to become the

youngest player

to get a Bundesliga

double.

JUN 11, 2016

Agrees a four-year

contract with RB

Leipzig, who pay

a club record

€10m for him.

SEP 26, 2016

At 20 years and 203

days he becomes the

youngest player to

appear in 100

Bundesliga games.

MAR 22, 2017

Makes his

international debut,

as a substitute

against England.

Timo Werner

Debut...beating Gary

Cahill of England

Winner...with the

Confederations

Cup in 2017