BFW with Bayer Leverkusen: Florian Wirtz talks about his aspirations and Euro 2024

Bavarian Football Works staffer Jack Laushway is attending Bayer Leverkusen’s training camp in Austria and will be interviewing several key players of the squad during this week. Leverkusen are shaping up to one of the most exciting teams in the upcoming Bundesliga season and Florian Wirtz was one of the players who spoke with BFW during the week.

Florian Wirtz is one of the most exciting prospects on the world. Although he was sidelined for most of 2022 with an injury, the 20-year-old wonderkid is still top of mind and continues to earn praise from experts and football fanatics everywhere.

Bayer Leverkusen’s rising star was able to give BFW some insight on his aspirations for the upcoming season as well as for his career.

Last season, Leverkusen fell just short of the Europa League Final after losing to Roma in the semi-finals. The club is looking for their first trophy since 1992/93 — something Wirtz hopes to achieve this season.

“It would be very impactful for the fans and the players,” Wirtz said. “It would have been great to make the final, but we also can be proud of our success last season. We will be back in the competition this year and will want to get there again.”

Wirtz’s rise gives Leverkusen hope. And that’s something he brings to the Germany men’s national team as well. Alongside Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala, Germany have two exciting talents to lead the next generation in attack. Wirtz has already won the U-21 Euros with Germany in 2021, and has his eyes set squarely on the next edition of the senior tournament: on home soil, in 2024.

“We are going to have to prepare as much as possible to get the best results. We have been working hard to get the results,” Wirtz declared. “The whole country will be watching and it will be a dream come true. We are going to do our best to make the quarter-finals or semi-finals, but a win would be unbelievable.”

If Wirtz and the Germans can get the job done in 2024, it would be a massive step towards reclaiming the heights the national team reached in the not-so-distant past.