No wonder Bayern Munich want Florian Wirtz: Bayer Leverkusen ace is the best No.10 in the world

March 13, 2022 - the day Wirtz tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a Bundesliga clash with Koln. He was still only 18 at the time, meaning he had both youth and time on his side as he began his long road to recovery. However, there was a natural fear that Wirtz might never be the same again after one of the most feared injuries in football, which would have been a sporting tragedy, as he'd looked like a generational talent before being sidelined for 10 months.

Wirtz became the youngest player in Leverkusen's history when he made his professional debut just 15 days after turning 17 on May 18, 2020, and broke a succession of Bundesliga records as he became a regular starter at the BayArena.

Consequently, as Wirtz neared a return to first-team action in January 2023, there wasn't just excitement within the world of German football - but also an undeniable air of anxiety. Xabi Alonso wasn't worried, though. Leverkusen's new coach had already seen enough in training to convince him that Wirtz had lost none of the attributes that marked him out as a future superstar.

"There are good players and there are players who look good on the pitch," Alonso mused ahead of Wirtz's much-anticipated comeback. "The player who looks good does things that are nice, but not necessarily efficient. Why is Lionel Messi so good? Because he knows how and when to play simple passes. Messi says: 'You're in a better position? Here, there you have the ball!'

"It's not always about making the most brilliant move, but the best and smartest. Florian can do that. That's why he's so good." Happily, it wouldn't take Wirtz long to remind everyone what all the fuss had been about.

By April 13, 2023, less than three months after reappearing for the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season, Wirtz had been directly involved in 12 goals in just 16 outings in all competitions.

It took a little while for the old intensity and physicality to return but, by the start of the following campaign, it was clear that Wirtz wasn't just back, he was even better than before.

"Belief in his own quality is something that he's always had," Bayer's managing director of sport Simon Rolfes told Kicker. "But now he has this aggressiveness going into duels. It took him a while after the injury to be confident on that front, [but] he's taken giant strides in that aspect."

Consequently, Wirtz was perfectly poised to play a pivotal part in one of the most remarkable stories in modern football: The transformation of 'Neverkusen' into 'Neverlusen'.

Leverkusen's undefeated domestic double in 2023-24 was the epitome of a team triumph. Every single person at the club had contributed to an unprecedented success. Alonso was the managerial mastermind, the genius coach who tied it all together, but Rolfes & Co. also deserved enormous credit for providing him with the tools the Spaniard required to sculpt a masterpiece.

Alex Grimaldo, Jonas Hofmann, Granit Xhaka and Victor Boniface were among several inspired signings - but it was Wirtz, the former teenage wonderkid who had been long tipped to do great things at the BayArena, who was Alonso's most influential player, an attacker with a mix of industry and innovation that made him as effective as he was inspirational.

As Freiburg coach Christian Streich said after his side's loss in Leverkusen on October 29, 2023, "You can't defend against Florian Wirtz." He was right, too: Wirtz was unstoppable in last season's Bundesliga - much like Leverkusen.

While Harry Kane broke one goal-scoring record after another during his debut season at Bayern, Wirtz was the obvious choice for the Bundesliga's Player of the Year, with his pleasingly symmetrical tally of goals and assists (11 apiece) underlining his all-round excellence, as well as his obvious importance to Leverkusen's first-ever title triumph.

The club's hopes of an unbeaten treble may have been ended by Atalanta in the Europa League final, but Leverkusen showed impressive mental strength in recovering from that shock setback to beat Kaiserslautern in the DFB-Pokal final and, by the end of an historic campaign, Wirtz had racked up 19 assists - more than any other player across Europe's 'Big Five' leagues.

Unsurprisingly, his fantastic form provoked plenty of transfer talk, and Bayern weren't the only big club looking to swoop last summer. Wirtz was also repeatedly linked with Man City and, in fairness, ongoing reports that Pep Guardiola views the Germany international as the 'dream replacement' for Kevin De Bruyne make so much sense.

Wirtz is essentially a trequartista tailor-made for the modern game. He always plays with his head up, meaning he never misses an opportunity to prise open a defence, while his wondrous dribbling skills enable him to create space for himself where there was previously none.

It's his work-rate, though, that sets himself apart from so many of his peers. As Xhaka told the Bundesliga's official website, "Flo plays as a No.10 but has the mentality of a defensive midfielder, because he puts in so much effort for the team. When you look at his statistics, it's incredible how many intensive runs he makes, how many kilometres he covers."

With or without the ball, then, Wirtz is always contributing to the cause, which explains why Diego Simeone was so impressed with him during Atletico Madrid's recent meeting with Leverkusen at the Metropolitano, with the Argentine comparing him to Antoine Griezmann, another incredibly intelligent football blessed with a touch of genius who is also willing to work his socks off for the sake of the team.

And Wirtz's performances in Europe have merely confirmed what everyone in Germany has known for a long time, that this is a Ballon d'Or winner in the making.

"He is a Champions League player," Alonso told reporters after one of Wirtz's five Player of the Match awards during the league phase. "This competition is for him. Florian always wants to have a big game. A big game is the best thing for him."

Luckily for Leverkusen, he's got another one coming up on Wednesday, with Alonso's men scheduled to take on Bayern in the first leg of an all-German Champions League last-16 tie.

Hoeness, then, is going to get the chance to see Wirtz at the Allianz Arena, but whether it ever happens on a weekly basis remains a long shot. At just 21 years of age, the former teenage talent threatened by the dreaded ACL injury has developed into the perfect 10 that now everyone would love to sign.