{"id":1334382,"date":"2023-12-11T16:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1334382"},"modified":"2023-12-12T10:05:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T10:05:24","slug":"thiago-motta-joshua-zirkzee-bologna","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/thiago-motta-joshua-zirkzee-bologna\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;It depends on him&#8221; &#8211; Thiago Motta backs Joshua Zirkzee for a bright future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Joshua Zirkzee is among\u00a0the most in-form players in Serie A right now, and Bologna head coach Thiago Motta believes he can make it back to the top of European football.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Zirkzee, a graduate of Bayern Munich&#8217;s academy, joined the Serie A outfit in August 2022 following a loan spell at RSC Anderlecht, where he bagged 18 goals and created 13 more across 47 appearances in all competitions.<\/p>\n<!-- Shortcode [sky-bet-b10-get-40-acca] does not exist -->\n<p>The 22-year-old striker also enjoyed a brief stint at Parma and is currently Bologna&#8217;s leading marksman having netted seven goals in 15 league outings.<\/p>\n<p>Last time out against Salernitana the native of Schiedam (at 22 years and 202 days) bagged two goals &#8212; his fourth brace while playing in a Top 10 European league &#8212; subsequently becoming the youngest Dutchman to score a brace in the Serie A since Patrick Kluivert for Milan in 1998 (21y 229d).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A Dutch master at work! ?? ?\u200d?<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SalernitanaBologna?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SalernitanaBologna<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WeAreOne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WeAreOne<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5l0fKzUZYz\">pic.twitter.com\/5l0fKzUZYz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bologna FC 1909 (@BolognaFC1909en) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BolognaFC1909en\/status\/1734216088420774018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 11, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, among players born from 1 January 2000 onward, Zirkzee has the most Serie A goal involvements (nine &#8211; seven goals and two assists). As things stand, only Lautaro Martinez (13) and Olivier Giroud (8) have so far scored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/outright-markets\/serie-a-top-scorers-most-goals-capocannoniere-award-gameweek-4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>more Serie A goals<\/strong><\/a> than him.<\/p>\n<p>When head coach Motta was asked if Zirkzee could one day play for a European super club one day, &#8220;It depends on him,&#8221; was his response.<\/p>\n<p>However, it&#8217;s worth noting that Zirkzee already played 17 times for Bayern, netting four goals in the process with all of those strikes coming in the Bundesliga.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/crvena-zvezda-world-record-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Crvena zvezda set new world record ahead of Man City showdown<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/top-10-best-out-of-work-managers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The 10 best out-of-work managers right now<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/quizzes\/who-am-i-player-career-path-quiz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Who am I? Guess the mystery player behind these 10 career paths<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joshua Zirkzee is among\u00a0the most in-form players in Serie A right now, and Bologna head coach Thiago Motta believes he can make it back to the top of European football. Zirkzee, a graduate of Bayern Munich&#8217;s academy, joined the Serie A outfit in August 2022 following a loan spell at RSC Anderlecht, where he bagged&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1334385,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1334382","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;It depends on him&quot; - Thiago Motta backs Joshua Zirkzee for a bright future | Squawka | EN<\/title>\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\/thiago-motta-joshua-zirkzee-bologna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;It depends on him.&quot; - Thiago Motta backs forgotten wonderkid to reach his full potential\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joshua Zirkzee is among\u00a0the most in-form players in Serie A right now, and Bologna head coach Thiago Motta believes he can make it back to the top of European football. Zirkzee, a graduate of Bayern Munich&#8217;s academy, joined the Serie A outfit in August 2022 following a loan spell at RSC Anderlecht, where he bagged...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/thiago-motta-joshua-zirkzee-bologna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Squawka | EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-12T10:05:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/2023\/12\/11162411\/1334382_1334382_JZ-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"&quot;It depends on him&quot; - Thiago Motta backs Joshua Zirkzee for a bright future\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@squawka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/thiago-motta-joshua-zirkzee-bologna\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/thiago-motta-joshua-zirkzee-bologna\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mohamed Moallim\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c\"},\"headline\":\"&#8220;It depends on him&#8221; 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