Angelo Stiller: Why Liverpool and Real Madrid are being linked with Stuttgart's 'new Toni Kroos'

Stiller was born into a Bayern-mad family in Munich. One would have thought, then, that when his hometown club first came calling, he would have immediately jumped at the chance to join the Bavarian giants.

However, the eight-year-old Stiller made Bayern wait. He spent another season playing with his friends for local team Milbertshofen before eventually signing for the six-time champions of Europe in 2010. Stiller wasted little time progressing through the Bayern youth team ranks thereafter and was playing for the Under-19s while still only 17.

To say that Sebastian Hoeness has been a big influence on Stiller's career would be putting it very mildly indeed. It was the former Hertha Berlin attacking midfielder who called a teenage Stiller up to the Bayern reserves in 2019, and his impressive performances in Germany's third tier led to a first-team debut under Hansi Flick in October of the following year.

Hoeness' presence at Hoffenheim also played a key part in Stiller's decision to move to the PreZero Arena when his Bayern contract expired at the end of the 2020-21 campaign. And so, when Hoeness left for Stuttgart, it wasn't in the least bit surprising to see the pair reunited again in the summer of 2023.

"It's definitely something special when a coach follows your career for so long and you get to play under him," Stiller told the Bundesliga's official website earlier this year. "I think we both see football the same way. I believe we both want to play the same kind of football, both offensively and defensively, and I think that it is important that we have that trust."

Hoeness' departure from Hoffenheim in the summer of 2022 was unsurprisingly a serious setback for Stiller. He still featured 20 times during the following campaign, but he started only six times. Consequently, Stiller wasn't at all happy with how his career was progressing. He felt as if he were stagnating, which is why he jumped at the opportunity to be reunited with his mentor at the MHPArena.

Stuttgart paid just €5.5 million to sign Stiller in the summer of 2023 and it quickly proved a sensational bit of business, with the defensive midfielder helping the club to a shock second-placed finish in last season's Bundesliga.

"At the beginning, no one really expected that from us, including ourselves, to be honest," Stiller subsequently admitted. "But over the course of the games, weeks, and months, we showed that we play good football. That's why I believe the season should be rated very highly."

The current campaign is not going quite as well - at least not for Stuttgart, who are 11th in the Bundesliga standings. Stiller, by contrast, is continuing to impress. He broke into the Germany squad after Kroos' post-Euro 2024 retirement from football and has earned four caps in his country's Nations League campaign so far, while his fine form has also attracted the attention of some of Europe's elite.

Stiller is not your typical ball-winning defensive midfielder. He's a gifted, multi-talented playmaker who has drawn comparisons to not only Kroos but another of his esteemed compatriots in Joshua Kimmich, due to his ability to read the game and pick a pass.

Indeed, he's one of the Bundesliga's most creative players, as underlined by his current tally of eight assists so far this season (just two fewer than the top-ranked Florian Wirtz), while he's also chipped in with four goals, including two during Stuttgart's run to the DFB-Pokal final.

What Hoeness really loves about Stiller, though, is his maturity, which he says has stood out since he was playing under-age football at Bayern. Consequently, he has never had any doubts about his protege's world-class potential, and was even pushing for him to be called up by Germany for Euro 2024.

"He is always able to adapt to a higher level," Hoeness said. "He is able to dictate a game - and that's because he understands the game. He knows just how many touches he needs in a particular situation - and that is rarely more than two, sometimes just one."

Stiller freely admits that his defensive game wasn't as good as it should have been during the early part of his professional career, and it's something that he's still working on. Nonetheless, he feels he's getting better and better at anticipating danger, timing tackles and winning duels.

"That's a good feeling, one that I didn't have before," he told Bundesliga.com. "It was drilled into me that football isn't just about having the ball; it has to hurt sometimes too."

Stiller's focus right now is on helping Stuttgart finish a draining and difficult campaign with a flourish by beating Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB-Pokal final on May 24, which would give him a first winners' medal since winning the third division title with Bayern's reserves back in 2020.

He is likely to have a big decision to make this summer no matter what happens in Berlin, though, with interest in his services intensifying. However, his national-team prospects will greatly influence his next move.

Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann has previously described Stiller as having the "perfect" profile for his 2026 World Cup squad, so the 24-year-old will be looking for the closest thing he can get to guaranteed game time ahead of next summer's tournament in North America. When one also considers that the buy-out clause in his current contract doesn't come into effect until 2026, there's every chance that he could end up staying at Stuttgart for another season.

Of course, a big bid from Liverpool or Madrid could change everything, but the one thing we can be sure of is that Stiller won't be rushed into a transfer. He bided his time as an eight-year-old before joining Bayern; he'll probably do likewise before deciding his next move.