Page 64 - Soccer360 Issue 104

BUNDESLIGA SPOTLIGHT
“LEVERKUSEN ARE CURRENTLY ONE OF
THE TEAMS VIEWED AS SERIOUS CONTENDERS FOR THE BUNDESLIGA TITLE.”
currently playing for Werder Bremen in the Frauen- Bundesliga. Prior to this, the 22-year-old defender was on the books of Köln and Bayer Leverkusen, the club where her younger brother has become a breakout star.
After a couple of years with his local club, Wirtz then moved on to Köln, where he spent a decade on their books before Leverkusen signed him in January 2020 at the age of 16. It took just four months for him to earn a call-up to the senior side after consistently impressing with the club’s U-17 team, and in the 2020-21 campaign, Wirtz then became a fully integral part of the Leverkusen squad under Dutch coach Peter Bosz.
During his first full season with die Werkself, he made nearly 40 appearances across all competitions, while scoring eight goals. Later in 2021, he became the youngest ever player to reach 50 career appearances when he featured
Xabi Alonso has brought about an incredible revival at Bayer Leverkusen
Harry Kane leads the way in goal scoring in the Bundesliga
2023-24 SEASON
LEADING GOAL SCORERS SO FAR
TEAM GOALS
Bayern Munich 18 VfB Stuttgart 15 RB Leipzig 9 VfL Wolfsburg 9 Leverkusen 7 Leverkusen 7 VfB Stuttgart 7
TEAM
Harry Kane
Serhou Guirassy
Lois Openda
Jonas Wind
Victor Baniface
Alex Grimaldo
Denis Undav
As of November 28th, 2023
DID YOU KNOW ?
62 SOCCER360
Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy (R) in action against Dortmund’s Salih Ozcan (L)
Hamburg’s Rafael van der Vaart
Koln’s Sebastian Bornauw (r) and Bayern’s Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting
TWO OVER FIFTEEN
Two players have 15+ goals after 11 Bundesliga matchdays this season (Serhou Guirassy and Harry Kane), as many as in the entire history of the competition combined after 11 matchdays (Robert Lewandowski and Gerd Müller).
31 AFTER 11
Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s record of 31 points after 11 games is the joint- most at this stage of a Bundesliga season, with only Bayern having previously amassed as many (31
in 2015-16) - no team has ever had more at the same stage.
RAFAEL VAN DER FAR
Rafael van der Vaart is the only player since det. data collection (2004-05) to score more goals from outside
the box in his first 11 Bundesliga appearances (4) than Leverkusen’s Aléx Grimaldo and Heidenheims Jan- Niklas Beste currently (3 each).
NO SUBS?
Their 1-0 win at Köln was the first time FC Bayern München did not make a single substitution in a Bundesliga match since the 11th of December 2010 and a 3-0 win over St. Pauli under Louis van Gaal.