Football in Europe has continued to be a non-stop machine of entertainment in the month of September, and in particular, the Bundesliga has seen some individual brilliance, which means it is no shock that our POTM for September is plying his trade in the league. However, despite being tempted by the lure of the goal machines Lewandowski and Haaland as seems to be the case more often than not, it’s actually a young talented player from Leverkusen who nabs this months award, Florian Wirtz.

The 18 year old has been tearing it up for his club, helping them to charge up the table through September. Scoring in all 3 of his games this month, the teenager has become the youngest Bundesliga player to score 8, 9 and now 10 goals. Furthermore, he has also managed to bag his first cap for Germany, and on top of everything else he set up 2 goals to become the leagues joint leading assist maker (4) this season.

He’s a real superstar talent, and continues this trend of young prospects thriving in the Bundesliga, and it’s only going to be a matter of time until his name is being branded across Europe’s elite.

As always, if you disagree or have anything to add to our pick of the month, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

September 11th: Bayer Leverkusen 3-4 Borussia Dortmund – Following on from his involvement in the German national setup for their 3 World Cup qualifiers, Wirtz returned to Leverkusen in a massively dramatic and thrilling contest. It was a real back and forth until Haaland’s penalty in the 77th minute gave Dortmund the edge. Wirtz was the first to break the deadlock, scoring inside 9 minutes, and had a very impressive game despite the loss. As Leverkusen’s star man, he was only edged to the man of the match by Haaland, and had a great game, creating the most chances (5) of anyone on the pitch and making the most tackles (2). Scoring with his only shot on target, he played as the no.10 for Leverkusen behind Schick, and was defensively sound as well as being an attacking threat. Along with his own strike, he set up the second for Leverkusen and Schick just before half-time, but the points couldn’t follow unfortunately.

September 19th: VfB Stuttgart 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen – After continuing his scoring run in September in the Europa League win over Ferencváros, Wirtz was massively influential in the win over Stuttgart. Setting up the second for Leverkusen inside 20 minutes, things looked easy for the away side, and although pegged back to 2-1 late in the first half, Wirtz settled things for good midway through the second as he added Leverkusen’s 3rd. His reward was an 8.5/10 rating and the man of the match award, after being heavily involved in his 86 minutes on the field.

September 25th: Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 1. FSV Mainz 05 – It was back to back wins for Leverkusen, and Wirtz continued his run of scoring in September (finished as 5 goals in 5 games for his club in all competitions), as he nabbed the only goal in a close encounter between his side and Mainz. It was midway through the second half when Wirtz grabbed the goal to take all 3 points, and again his performance earnt him an 8.2/10 rating for his efforts. Having 3 shots in this one, he was a more attacking threat, however he was still defensively solid and created 2 chances in his 80 minutes on-field.