Labbadia on working with Timo Werner: 'It was difficult not to recognise his talent'
Bruno Labbadia, who handed Timo Werner his senior debut at VfB Stuttgart, says he could see the striker's huge potential straight away.
| Timo Werner. | Photo: Эдгар Брещанов/Soccer.ru/CC-by-SA 3.0 |
Today - five and a half years later - the striker plays for RB Leipzig and Germany amid interest from the likes of Bayern München and Liverpool.
The man who handed Werner his debut is the current VfL Wolfsburg coach Bruno Labbadia. The 52-year-old, who coached Stuttgart from 2010 to 2013, claims he was immediately convinced by striker's qualities after seeing him in training for the first time.
"With Timo, it was difficult not to recognise his talent," Labbadia said in an interview with Kicker.
Labbadia used to organize a training session for the most promising youth players at Stuttgart about once a month. And when Labbadia and his assistant trainer Eddi Sözer first saw Werner train at the age of 16, they knew he was something special.
"After the first training session, Eddy came to me and said: 'If we get the chance, we have to let him play. He's a player who just wants to score goals,'" Labbadia said and added:
"We knew that he had the abilities. With his dynamism and finishing, he has great qualities."
Labbadia could be up against his former player when Wolfsburg face RB Leipzig away from home in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday.
