This article is ace. If possible I recommend viewing on the site, it has some cool embed video & photos. (
@RedNinja I really cant remember how to do that cool frame embed thing).
https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/...-future-ballon-d-or-winner-blmd29v-440278.jsp
It seems slightly incongruous to call Julian Brandt a rising star, as many do. So well known and so talented is the Bayer 04 Leverkusen attacking midfielder, that it would not be far-fetched to describe him as one of the league's current stars. Whichever moniker you choose, however, one thing appears certain: Brandt is already well on his way to the very top of the world game.
The 21-year-old has impressed again this season, scoring four times in 17 appearances for a B04 side currently
hitting the heights in the Bundesliga. It may have seemed like the typical hyperbole accompanying a transfer when Rudi Völler described him as "one of the most talented players in German football," upon his arrival at the BayArena in January 2014, but almost everything Brandt has done in black and red since has proved Völler correct.
If it feels that, despite his age [21], Brandt has been around for years, it is probably because he has been around for years. After joining Leverkusen from
Wolfsburg, the tyro made 12 appearances in the 2013/14
Rückrunde, scoring two goals and picking up three assists. He has since well surpassed 100 Bundesliga appearances (115, to be precise), and has appeared 21 times in the UEFA Champions League.
A burly attacking midfielder who on first glance would perhaps not appear a natural footballer, Brandt's effortless first touch and frightening speed of thought swiftly undermine that initial impression. In fact, Brandt is probably the most gifted of a ludicrously talented crop of young German attacking midfielders (as underlined by the emergence of
Kai Havertz alongside him at Leverkusen).
"I have relatively solid speed for someone of my height. I feel pretty comfortable when it comes to ball control," Brandt modestly told
DW Sports last term. "Sure there are a few more [strengths], but they're definitely accompanied by a few weaknesses."
One of those weaknesses had perhaps previously been inconsistency – hardly uncommon in young players. In truth, it was probably only in 2015/16 when Brandt properly burst onto the scene: he became only the second-ever teenager to score in six successive Bundesliga games – including finding the net in the Rhine Derby against Cologne – as he almost single-handedly dragged
Die Werkself into the Champions League.
It was a run of form that propelled him into the Germany squad for the first time: Brandt won his first international cap against Slovakia in a pre-UEFA EURO 2016 friendly, although was one of four players cut from the provisional squad ahead of the tournament.
An impressive Olympics as Germany won a silver medal was followed by a call-up to last summer's FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, where Brandt featured three times as Die Mannschaft lifted the title.
The former Germany Under-19 champion has continued to excel on the domestic front this season, and with five goals and five assists in all competitions for Leverkusen so far this season, is making sure he stays firmly in contention for a place in Joachim Löw's squad for this year's FIFA World Cup. Should Brandt make it, you can expect him to start staking a claim on the global stage as one of world football's next Ballon d'Or winners.
