Mutual assists: the Bundesliga's faith in youth being repaid
No player under the age of 21 from any of Europe's top five leagues can match either Jude Bellingham or Florian Wirtz for league assists after 19 Matchdays this season, with the Bundesliga's teenagers once again showing the rest of the continent how it's done.
Bellingham, already a full England international, has teed up six goals so far this season – fewer than only one other under-21 across Europe's top five leagues (Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League, Ligue 1 and Serie A): Bayer Leverkusen's Germany international Wirtz.
Watch: How the Bundesliga creates young stars
Wirtz has provided nine goals for his Werkself colleagues after 19 rounds of the 2021/22 campaign, setting the standard as Europe's leading teenaged assist-provider. The list does not end there.
Bayern Munich's shooting star Jamal Musiala's four provisions are only bettered by his domestic rivals.
Bukayo Saka of Arsenal has four in 20 games, and – together with Villarreal's Yeremy Pino – is the only other U21 player from the continent's top five leagues to have carved out as many goals, with Barcelona's Gavi following with three – together with Patrick Wimmer of Arminia Bielefeld.
Watch: Bayer Leverkusen Wunderkind Wirtz
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As well as being leading creative talents, the Bundesliga's rising stars are clearly benefitting from the fact that they have the opportunities to show what they can do with the ball.
In total, 22 players under the age of 19 have played in a Bundesliga fixture this season. Compare that with just 18 in Spain's La Liga, 15 in Italy's Serie A and 11 in England's Premier League. Furthermore, that list includes five – yes five – who are not even 17 yet, including Bayern's youngest debutant ever, Paul Wanner, who took to the field just fifteen days after his 16th birthday.
Wirtz may be 18, but he already has more than half a century of Bundesliga outings under his belt. He reached that landmark at a younger age than anybody before him – edging out Dortmund's Gio Reyna, who was also 18, but a couple of months older when he reached 50 games earlier in 2021/22.
Before them, another former Leverkusen player Kai Havertz – now with Christian Pulisic at Chelsea – had also made 50 appearances in German football's top league before turning 19, and both he and Leverkusen benefitted mutually with 15 assists during that time – the same amount Wirtz provided across his first 50 Bundesliga outings.
Bellingham is just four games shy of bringing up his own first half century of Bundesliga games, and he will be only marginally older than Wirtz when he reaches that landmark. Thanks to the faith vested in him by Dortmund coach Marco Rose, who has made the England international one of the pivotal members of his team this term, the 18-year-old is also about to go into double figures for Bundesliga assists.
Musiala, meanwhile, has become a full Germany international off the back of his performances for Bayern, and he, too, could bring up his 50th Bundesliga appearance on the day of his 19th birthday if he plays in all five of the record champions' league games up to and including 26 February's trip to Eintracht Frankfurt.
It is not purely down to the fact that Musiala, Wirtz and Bellingham have the talent to set up goals that they are delivering such a substantial number of assists – although that certainly helps – but this talent is being honed and harvested by their respective clubs.
That extends also to the UEFA Champions League, where Bellingham is the only teenager to have provided three assists this term and, incidentally, became the youngest player ever to score in consecutive games at European football's top table, dislodging a certain Kylian Mbappé.
Over in the UEFA Europa League, Wirtz is the only teenager with a tournament-leading three assists, and he can improve on that when Die Werkself return to Europe in the last-16 in March – perhaps with Bellingham's Dortmund joining them, if the youngster can help BVB see off Scottish champions Rangers in a play-off.
It is almost inevitable that both will be given chances to supply more assists at home and in Europe, since Dortmund and Leverkusen are certainly not afraid to put their faith in youth.
And, like with Bayern and Musiala, they know their trust gets returned to them with interest, in the form of assists, goals, points and prizes.
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