A little incentivisation from a parent to encourage their offspring to push themselves that little bit harder has provided generations of youngsters with extra pocket money from time to time. But for Timo Werner’s father, such motivational tactics ended up becoming a very costly exercise indeed.
“Timo’s father was coach of our adult’s team, but when he came to watch his seven-year-old son play, he promised him a little bit of money for every goal, and I think he regretted it very quickly.” Michael Bulling, head of football at community-based club TSV Steinhaldenfeld in Stuttgart, tells i.
“In his second year he paid only for goals Timo scored with his head or left foot, but sometimes Timo made complex moves just to be able to score with his left. It was like it was too easy for him, and he was taking all his father’s money!”
It was soon very apparent to Bulling that young Timo was on the path to eclipsing his father – a very proficient amateur footballer in his own right. But that did not stop young Timo from wanting to impress the man he looked up to most.
“I will never forget that first moment I saw him, just how strong his shot was. From an eight-year-old it was quite scary.”
“During the men’s first-team matches, with his dad the coach, Timo would run laps around our pitch,” Bulling continues. “He was seven or eight, and he would ask his dad after every lap how fast he was. Of course his dad wanted to coach his team but the boy didn’t care. He just wanted his dad’s approval.”
Suitably impressed, Günther Schuh took his son into the hills for hours of practising, knowing full well local giants VfB Stuttgart were interested, and at just eight years old Werner began a long and tumultuous spell with Die Roten.
“He’s one of the best young players ever to come out of the club,” Markus Rüdt, head of the Stuttgart academy for the entirety of Werner’s time with the club, tells i. “We also had Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich, but Timo was always a special player. It is not always you have such an extraordinary striker.”
With his father watching almost all training sessions as well as matches, “Turbo Timo” – as he was quickly dubbed due to his pace – found his goalscoring boots immediately.
“I will never forget that first moment I saw him, just how strong his shot was,” Rüdt says. “From an eight-year-old it was quite scary. In matches or training he never stopped scoring. It was clear with this shot he would go to the top – he played always the year above, even two years, and never struggled to compete. His body was so strong. Timo’s height was never a problem as he was so strong. He was also too fast for everyone else. When he played against older boys they could not get near him.”
Werner was fast-tracked to the Stuttgart first-team fold. Ahead of his senior debut, he had scored 24 goals for their Under-19s in 2012-13 and won the Fritz Walter gold medal – given by the German Football Association to outstanding players in the Under-17 category.
Aged 17 years, four months and 25 days he became Stuttgart’s youngest-ever player on his debut in a Europa League qualifier, and before he knew it he was an integral first-team player, breaking the record for the youngest to 50 Bundesliga appearances.
Things turned sour quickly, though, as Stuttgart were relegated and Werner, the club’s greatest hope, was targeted by some sections of fans. One admirer was waiting for his moment to save Werner from such negativity, and duly snapped up a teenager with so much still to give.
Ralf Rangnick, then RB Leipzig’s head coach and later sporting director, tells i: “There were other clubs interested but we were most attractive as we valued young players and he could see coming to Leipzig would help his development.
“It was helpful that I had been in contact with him all those years during his youth at Stuttgart – we knew what we would be getting and what he was all about. He had just come from being relegated with his hometown club, and he had not played in the final few games – his confidence was very low. He doubted whether he would make it but his determination is incredible and he never looked back.”
With Rangnick moving upstairs to become sporting director, under the tutelage of now Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl, Werner quickly went to another level.
His 21 goals in 2016-17 helped Leipzig qualify for the Champions League in their first season in the top flight and made him the most prolific German striker in the division. But one incident that season started a rather curious relationship between Werner and fans of other clubs in Germany.
Werner admitted he had gone down too easily to win a penalty against Schalke in December 2016, and his cynical conduct made him a natural target for all the traditionalists who disliked Leipzig’s inorganic ascent in the first place.
“I am still convinced that he did not do that intentionally, but fans saw it as a dive,” Rangnick adds.
“After that, he became a target from fans from other clubs who were not happy the club itself.”
Yet, even with some fans booing him while on international duty, Werner, and Leipzig, continued to take the Bundesliga by storm.
“There are two things that make him perfect: he is one of the fastest strikers in Europe and he has an incredible goal ratio, at every level,” Rangnick says. “His goalscoring instincts were something you cannot teach. In the last two years, he also improved in other aspects, as Julian Nagelsmann also brought other things to his game, tactically.
“Working with three coaches like myself, Ralph and Julian will have helped him so much.
“If you pick the right pass, it is almost impossible to stop him. I am convinced he will be a success in England.”
Werner leaves those disgruntled traditionalists behind as Leipzig’s all-time top goalscorer, with Germany’s loss very much Chelsea’s gain.
And one man who similarly could not resist the lure of the bright lights of London shares Rangnick’s confidence that the boy who started out wanting to just impress his father will be have Stamford Bridge in awe of him soon enough.
“The Premier League is totally different to the Bundesliga,” former Chelsea midfielder and Germany international Michael Ballack tells i. “The character of the fans, stadium, training intensity, time on the training pitch, it is different. The media treat you very differently, too.
“But Timo has played so many games, broken so many records, gone through relegation and so much other negativity that he can cope with absolutely anything. He has experienced more before reaching 25 years old than most players in their entire career.
“Can he be a success? He has all the ability and attitude to be one, yes. It is too early for Chelsea to challenge for the title, but when they do, expect Timo’s power and goal record to be a big part of it.”
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