{"id":1102915,"date":"2019-08-22T18:20:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T17:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1102915"},"modified":"2019-08-22T18:24:55","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T17:24:55","slug":"bayer-leverkusen-kai-havertz-germany","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/bayer-leverkusen-kai-havertz-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Kai Havertz is the best player in Germany, says Bundesliga coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Fortuna Dusseldorf manager Friedhelm Funkel has described Kai Havertz as the &#8220;best&#8221; player in Germany.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old Bayer Leverkusen midfielder is enjoying a fourth professional season at the BayArena.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7349082-liverpool-s-new-signing-the-unsung-norwich-city-heroes-propping-up-the-pukki-party<\/p>\n<p>Since breaking through in October 2016, he&#8217;s quickly established himself as one of European football&#8217;s most exciting prospects, and has subsequently been linked with the continent&#8217;s most powerful clubs including regional giants Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<p>Last season proved to be his most productive campaign to date, having registered 20 goals and seven assists in 42 matches. In the process he earned a first international cap for Germany at home to Peru in September 2018, before playing twice more against Russia and Serbia.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s continued where he left off this season, registering a goal in Bayer&#8217;s opening weekend victory over SC Paderborn 07, and looking ahead to Peter Bosz&#8217;s men visit, Fortuna Dusseldorf boss Funkel says Havertz ranks among the league&#8217;s finest players.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u2018Fabinho on Ceballos?\u2019 Liverpool vs Arsenal Premier League Preview w\/The Redmen TV\u2019s Paul Machin\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UF9KUXUJb0c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka&#8217;s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Leverkusen has incredible offensive potential and Kai Havertz is currently the best player in Germany,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/sport.sky.de\/fussball\/artikel\/funkel-schwaermt-vom-gegner-havertz-bester-spieler-deutschlands\/11791263\/34348\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sky Sports<\/a> in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But if we can find the right balance between compactness and offense, then we have a chance against Leverkusen as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Believe the Havertz hype? Five key things to know\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Kai Havertz broke thought at Bayer Leverkusen in October 2016 against against Werder Bremen.<\/li>\n<li>In the process he became the club&#8217;s youngest ever Bundesliga debutante at 17 years and 126 days old.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s since made 107 appearances, registering 30 goals and 22 assists.<\/li>\n<li>A number of clubs \u2013 including Barcelona, Liverpool, Man Utd, Bayern Munich \u2013 have been heavily linked with him.<\/li>\n<li>Havertz, so far, has three senior Germany international caps to his name.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script>(function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id))return;js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src='https:\/\/embed.playbuzz.com\/sdk.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document,'script','playbuzz-sdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"playbuzz\" data-id=\"13336866-d44f-442f-b2a2-b4b9099ac602\" data-show-share=\"false\" data-show-info=\"false\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fortuna Dusseldorf manager Friedhelm Funkel has described Kai Havertz as the &#8220;best&#8221; player in Germany. The 20-year-old Bayer Leverkusen midfielder is enjoying a fourth professional season at the BayArena. https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7349082-liverpool-s-new-signing-the-unsung-norwich-city-heroes-propping-up-the-pukki-party Since breaking through in October 2016, he&#8217;s quickly established himself as one of European football&#8217;s most exciting prospects, and has subsequently been linked with the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1102959,"parent":0,"menu_order":5511,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"%%title%%","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Fortuna D\u00fcsseldorf manager Friedhelm Funkel has described Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz as the \"best\" player in Germany.","footnotes":""},"tags":[285],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1102915","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-notnewsnow"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Kai Havertz is the best player in Germany, says Bundesliga coach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fortuna D\u00fcsseldorf manager Friedhelm Funkel has described Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz as the &quot;best&quot; player in Germany.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/bayer-leverkusen-kai-havertz-germany\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" 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