Bulinews Player of the Season Awards: Bayer Leverkusen's Player of the Season | OneFootball

Bayer Leverkusen may have hoped to defend their first-ever Bundesliga crown but in truth, they never really looked like holding off a resurgent Bayern Munich this time around. However, settling for second place is still an achievement in itself as Die Werkself clearly set themselves apart from the rest of the chasing pack. Xabi Alonso’s men couldn’t get the upper hand on the champions, but they consistently swatted other teams aside to cruise home as runners up.

One man who often orchestrated the Leverkusen attack was Florian Wirtz who enjoyed yet another stellar campaign in red and black. Despite only being 22-years-old, the German plays like an experienced professional. His outrageously talented skills include fierce technical ability, close control dribbling, a lethal eye for a defence-splitting ball and tremendous work ethic in defence.

Although not quite as fruitful as the 2023-24 campaign, Wirtz managed to come up with 10 goals and 12 assists in 31 games this season. While injuries sidelined him for short periods, it’s incredible to think he managed the sixth-highest shots total (78), second-most duels won (383) and the 21st-highest intensive runs (2302) across the German topflight. It goes without saying many Werkself fans will be praying that their Liverpool-linked talisman stays at the BayArena a while longer yet.

STANDOUT PERFORMANCE:

A 3-1 Rhineland derby win over Borussia Monchengladbach on Matchday 18 proved to be one of Florian Wirtz’s most rounded performances. The 22-year-old opened the scoring past the half-hour as Die Werkself counterattacked with venom. Granit Xhaka’s pass put Wirtz in space before pulling off a cheeky nutmeg on Ko Itakura before sending Moritz Nicolas the wrong way with an ice-cool finish inside the right post.

A handball spotted by match referee Harm Osmers presented Wirtz with a penalty to register his brace just past the hour. The German sent Nicolas the wrong way before dispatching it to the net. With a hand in all three goals on the night, Wirtz turned provider on 74 minutes – his delightful first-time pass into Schick from the edge of the box allowed the Czechia international to convert with his right boot.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Picking up the solitary vote from our writing panel was Patrik Schick who experienced his second-best goal-scoring campaign of his career. The 29-year-old quietly went about his business to rattle the net 21 times to finish as the second highest-scoring player of the season alongside BVB’s Serhou Guirassy. Although he has hinted at a summer departure, one would imagine Leverkusen and new head coach Erik Ten Hag will be keen to convince him to stay and lead the line for 2025-26.