Florian Wirtz is the latest Bayer Leverkusen teenage star from a club that depends on developing young talent

Bayer Leverkusen's ability to develop young talent is their calling card in the competitive Bundesliga landscape

Leverkusen -- When Chelsea paid Bayer Leverkusen a king's ransom for the services of Kai Havertz -- the best player the Bundesliga side had produced in two decades -- in the summer of 2020 sporting director Simon Rolfes did not blink. He had the best part of $100 million burning a hole in his pocket. He had no intention of spending it on a straight replacement for Havertz. "We could buy one for eight million, a waste of money, the kid is already better," he says. "At the end we didn't have a chance to act in a different way. It would have been senseless."

The kid is Florian Wirtz, so much more than just the successor to Havertz's crown. Still just 18 years of age, Wirtz is the beating heart of Bayer Leverkusen, heralded as one of the finest young players of his generation with four senior caps for Germany to his name already. Though he will naturally be compared to Havertz, the two could scarcely interpret their role in the spaces in front of defenses more differently. The Chelsea forward has all the raw ingredients of a classic number 10 but in a curious form: his height means that both Leverkusen and Thomas Tuchel have found success deploying him as a center forward, not least because they can use his size to great effect at set pieces.

Wirtz, meanwhile, takes on the more traditional form of a central creator. Where many German forwards will start wide and look to move infield, he tends to favor dropping to deeper spots to collect the ball off his central midfielders. At 5ft 7in he has the look of the diminutive playmaker though Celtic defenders can attest he is not easily brushed off the ball.