Fluid and Sleek yet Powerful and Robust. Leon Goretzka is the modern sports car.
I have seen facebook littered with a famous quote by a british broadcaster that runs something along the lines of:
“Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."
Thank you Gary Lineker, for your observations. But give us more man, don't just drop bombs.
With Germany bringing home a U21 European Championship and a Confederations Cup Championship in the same week, we can rest assured that the lederhosen will be dusted off and the steins will be clinking. There's reason to celebrate in Deutschland.
While we could go on about analyzing both tournaments and giving you mundane recaps of each, we will leave that to the Bleacher Reports and the Fox Soccer's of this planet. On a side note, Fox Soccer has been gracious enough to offer Alexi Lalas employment so that we can keep him as far away from soccer development as possible.
We would like to focus on a young man named Leon Goretzka and the tiny plot of land in west Germany where he is from. Leon Goretzka was an absolute stud in the confederations cup and his future looks bright as he possesses all the tools to become a stalwart in DIE MANNSCHAFT. Let’s go back a few years though.
look familiar?
Leon Goretzka is from Bochum, Germany. He grew up playing in Bochum, Germany for a club called VFL Bochum which some may know from their glory days in the Bundesliga but most likely know simply as a logo on FIFA, and a team that could be used to play against your idiotic cousin who helplessly presses buttons with an otherwise dominant Barcelona team. What absolutely blows my mind about Bochum is that it is a mere 4 miles away from Dortmund on one side and another 4 miles away from Gelsenkirchen on the other side. For the soccer newb: Gelsenkirchen houses Schalke 04 and Dortmund houses Borussia Dortmund. 4 miles each way? My mother does that on the elliptical machine! How on earth could Leon Goretzka grow up playing for Bochum!? You know who else played for VFL Bochum? A certain Ilkay Gundogan. 4 miles away from two of the biggest clubs in Europe and these guys don't get scouted. Madness. The reason for this is actually quite simple and goes as follows:
Mario Gotze, Marco Reus, Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil, Julian Draxler, Leroy Sane are but a few of the names that reason why Goretzka and Gundogan may have not been at the top local clubs from the get-go. This area in Germany, known as the Industrial Ruhr Valley, produces some of the finest quality in th world and remains the hidden hotbed for talent development.
This is a major reason why the majority of players that come through The Pro Project (The Fussball Projects scouting program) are moved to spend time in the Ruhr Valley before we place them at other clubs worldwide. You think Pulisic would be wearing the #10 for the US had he grown up playing for PA Classics or FC Delco? This experience in pro football is absolutely integral in the development of any emerging talent. I believe it was the late great Shawn Carter that said “and since I made it here I can make it anywhere.”
Enjoy the balmy temps folks.
-TFP