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Kai Havertz: A childhood dream has come true
Photo:
Manu Fernandez / dpa
The different emotions that sport can trigger are rarely found as close together as in an endgame.
When the final of the Champions League was over and Chelsea FC was the winner, blue cheering couples formed all over the lawn.
Chelsea's Kurt Zouma carried his teammate N'Golo Kanté in front of him as if he wanted to carry him over the next threshold.
Sergio Aguero was crying barely five meters away.
Agüero, 32, is one of the greatest players in Manchester City history, the losers of that final.
He played for the club for ten years, the final was his last game in the city jersey and his contract will not be renewed.
It could have been a fairytale goodbye, a grand finale, the ultimate title in the very last game.
Instead: emptiness.
A few meters further, Kai Havertz was lying on the lawn, his teammate Tammy Abraham had taken him into a headlock, then Timo Werner joined them.
In their joy they looked downright childlike.
Havertz is eleven years younger than Agüero, he is at the beginning of his career.
Young professionals like Havertz dream of a career like the Agüeros.
At the same time, this 21-year-old has achieved what the Argentine has not achieved in all these years: He shot his team to the Champions League title.
On TV channel Sky, he said that a childhood dream had come true.
"Since I was five or six years old, I have remembered every Champions League final." With his brother he "felt like playing every goal in the garden.
Now I'm doing the 1-0 here.
I do not know what to say."
Havertz has had a complicated season. Last summer, he moved from Leverkusen to London for around 80 million euros, which is the most expensive entry in the club's history, which is something that owner Roman Abramowitsch said at Chelsea FC. But Havertz was unable to develop the force that one hopes for from such an access. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that he fell ill with Covid-19 and missed several weeks; But even without the illness, the leap from the Bundesliga to the Premier League is enormous, Timo Werner can testify to that. This is all the more true for inexperienced footballers.
Havertz only scored five goals under Frank Lampard, four of them against lower-class opponents.
Even when Thomas Tuchel took over, things didn't seem to be going uphill at first.
But actually it was clear that the combination of Tuchel and Havertz would be fruitful.
Tuchel has developed many young players in his coaching career;
Havertz seemed like an ideal Tuchel kicker with his comprehension.
When he beat Real Madrid in the semi-final second leg, he made a big game that was hardly noticed as such, because he hit the crossbar twice instead of in the goal.
The first time, a lifter, Werner then dusted off and made the headlines: He finally scored an important goal.
Havertz's brilliant preparatory work became a minor matter.
He also made two strong assists against Man City.
In the 10th minute, however, Werner did not hit the ball correctly after his pass.
And after around 70 minutes, Christian Pulisic missed the opportunity to make it 2-0 after Havertz's presentation.
At the same time, he benefits from his teammates himself.
At 1-0 Werner created the necessary space for Havertz with his deep run, the strong Mason Mount provided the template for the goal with his dream pass.
For Havertz that goal was the first ever in the competition.
The question that automatically arises is whether he will ever score such an important goal again despite his young age, or whether he is past the peak of his football career when his career is really just getting started.
The answers to that are likely to be related to what makes Havertz tick.
There are no limits to his footballing skills, his potential is enormous.
And in Tuchel he has an ideal coach in London, from whom he should learn a lot, especially when it comes to the more complicated questions in football.
When do I occupy which room?
When is the right moment for a sprint, for a pass?
There aren't many coaches who can improve great players.
Tuchel is one of them.
But that will only work if Havertz is not satisfied with being the winning goal scorer in a Champions League final at the age of 21.
The best footballers always strive for the next victory, the next title.
The next chance for the title comes pretty quickly.
The European Championship begins on June 11th, Havertz is part of the German squad and his chances are good that he will play a major role in Joachim Löw's offensive plan.
Havertz is both a penalty area striker and someone who tracks down opposing gaps;
he has a good finish with both feet and his head and at the same time is an ideal combination player.
That makes him unique in the DFB team.
And Havertz is predestined to storm alongside the soon-to-be-again national player Thomas Müller.
The two should ideally complement each other.
The fact that Havertz is now traveling to the national team with the winning goal in the final shouldn't hurt him, on the contrary.
The EM, the national team or other questions about the future will not interest him at the moment anyway. When English television interviewed him after the victory over Manchester and the reporter asked whether Havertz had paid back some of his high fee with this goal, the latter answered quite brutally. "To be honest, I don't give a shit right now," he said. “We just won the damn Champions League. Now we celebrate."