Leverkusen coach Peter Bosz heaps praise on record-breaking debutant Florian Wirtz
After becoming Bayer Leverkusen's youngest Bundesliga debutant of all time on Monday, Florian Wirtz received praise from his coach Peter Bosz.
| Peter Bosz. | Photo: Bayer 04 Leverkusen |
At the age of 17 years and 15 days, Wirtz became the youngest player to ever appear for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga when he started on Monday.
"Making your debut is always something special. All in all, it was a good performance from him, he wasn't nervous," Bosz said after the game.
Leverkusen snapped up the youngster from FC Köln's youth ranks in January, much to the disappointment of their local rivals, who would have liked to keep the highly-rated youngster.
"When [Leverkusen sporting director] Simon Rolfes came to me some time ago and drew my attention to the fact that, surprisingly, an extremely talented player from the region was on the market and willing to make a switch, we went into negotiations," Leverkusen boss Rudi Völler told Kicker after the move was announced in January and added:
"It would have been negligent to not sign him. The 16-year-old attacking midfielder was on the wish list of many top clubs in and outside the country.
"In our talks, we certainly benefited from the fact that we gave many young players like Kai Havertz, Julian Brandt and Benjamin Henrichs the chance to play in the Champions League at a very early stage in the past."