There is a strange misconception in football that if you are a good player when you are in your teenage years, that you will go on to become a world-beater as you mature physically and mentally.
While many players do go on to fulfil such promise, there are countless examples of young stars who have been unable to live up to the billing – for every Wayne Rooney or Joshua Kimmich, there’s a Sebastian Deisler or even a Michael Owen, who never reached the heights of his teenage years thereafter.
It’s a topic that adds an interesting aside to any debate about Kai Havertz, the 21-year-old Bayer Leverkusen prodigy who is currently kicking up a storm in the German Bundesliga.
He’s been linked with a move to all of the big guns this summer too, whose scouting teams seem to have convinced themselves that the versatile forward is the answer to their prayers.
But is all as it seems with Kai Havertz?
Living Up to the Billing
While it would be unfair to label Leverkusen a one-man team, it would also be a disservice to underestimate the importance of Havertz to their success this term. The outfit known as Die Werkself have relied heavily on the output of the 20-year-old, who has had a direct hand in over 20 goals across all competitions.
But his influence extends beyond mere goals and assists because Havertz is the focal point of the Leverkusen attack – dropping into pockets of space from his false nine position to bring others into play. Indeed,
according to Understat, he has an Expected Assist score over 8 this season in the Bundesliga, which suggests he is creating ample opportunities for his teammates to profit from.
The WhoScored rating system places Havertz just outside of the top 10 in the Bundesliga player of the season race, with the ever-excellent Robert Lewandowski and young guns Jadon Sancho and Timo Werner leading the way.
Even for the quiet man from Aachen to be classed alongside those names in only his second ‘proper’ top-flight campaign speaks volumes.
But it’s clear from his underlying performance data that Havertz will one day be considered on a par with that trio, with his two key passes per 90 minutes and two completed dribbles putting him comfortably within the Bundesliga’s most creative players –
adding goals to his game (five in five following the break in the season) is the icing on the cake.
Leverkusen themselves are moving in the right direction while they hang on to their prized asset, although they are expected to miss out on the top four as they are priced at 13/10 in the
William Hill betting market.
But the question stands – just how good would Havertz be in the Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund team with elite-level players all around him?
He continues to be linked with a move away from the club, and you can take your pick from the continent’s biggest names as to who has been watching his progress closely.
Will Havertz’s fine young career continue on an upward trajectory from here? Only time will tell, but one thing that is for sure is that he is an extraordinarily talented 20-year-old.