The Most Efficient U23 Player in Europe
workshop | the sports marketing journal
Erling Haaland turned 24 in July of last year. It’s incredible to imagine he had scored 245 club goals prior to his 24th birthday.
Those numbers have skewed the sample size for top level goal contribution figures in recent years, but since we can only measure Haaland’s return from the season prior (whilst u23), let’s take this analysis back to include both the 23/24 and 24/25 season to date… to prove that this is no one-hit wonder piece.
Below are the top u23 players in Europe’s top five leagues, measured by goal contributions across all club competitions:
At 21-years-of-age, Florian Wirtz leads the way with 65 involvements, 38 during the famed Bayer Leverkusen ‘Invincibles’ season.
In case you’d forgotten, in this season of all seasons, he was named Bundesliga Player of the Year.
Picking up where he left off this season, he already has 15 goals and 12 assists… feast your eyes as Wirtz proves he can do it all.
Wirtz is the modern-day Kevin De Bruyne, a throwback to those long-lost glory years at Manchester City, and yet it was at this age, the once mercurial De Bruyne, could be found grappling for regular first team football at Chelsea.
A word for Cole Palmer, who this piece could so easily have been built upon; he leads the field for goals (41), ahead of Jude Bellingham (34), whilst Wirtz leads the field for assists (32), ahead of Bukayo Saka (29).
But here’s the kicker: Wirtz averages a goal contribution every 93 minutes, standing atop the rest of the field (current u23 crop). Palmer places second with 96 minutes.
Jude Bellingham is the youngest player in this list… What hasn’t been said about this generational talent? At 21-years-of-age, Bellingham has already won five club competitions at Real Madrid, including the Champions League, and the Golden Boy trophy.
And yet, Wirtz is less than two-months younger than Bellingham, the second youngest player on this list.
With 33 goals & 32 assists, it’s Wirtz’s all-round game, capable of playing in a number of positions across the forward and midfield lines, that set he and Jude apart from their peers… as two of the most impactful players in world football.