André Schürrle is a German footballer who currently plays for German Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. Schurrle can either play as a Left Forward, Centre Attacking Midfielder, or Centre Forward. This season he mostly appeared as a left forward to Leverkusen’s Stefan Kiessling.
Profile
André Schürrle was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, a small city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, born 6 November 1990. André Schürrle didn’t move a lot in his short career joining local youth club Ludwigshafener SC in 1996 at age of 6. His love for football was closely noticed by the club and stayed with the youth team until 2006. He was being watched by scouts at ages of 15 and 16 before receiving several offers from throughout Germany.
Schürrle joined 1. FSV Mainz 05 – the biggest club in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. It was a dream come true for the 16-year old who joined the U-17 at the club. His three years at Mainz are the years that turned him into the player we know him as today. He worked hard in the first year to earn him a place in Mainz U-19 at age of 17 in 2007, scoring 8 goals in 25 matches in the U-19-Bundesliga. He had his breakthrough season through 2008/09 season scoring 14 goals in 19 matches in the Bundesliga U-19 and 3 goals in 2 matches in the U-19 Cup. During the season he was called up to play for Germany U-19 scoring 3 goals in 6 Friendlies totalling his goals to 19 goals in 28 matches. At the end of the season he won the Under 19 Bundesliga to earn him a call up to the first team.
Click here to view his Profile on SoccerWiki
July of 2009, André Schürrle signed a professional contract with FSV Mainz 05 after a whopping season for the player. Winning the U-19 Youth Cup and being called up to the U-19 team of Germany was enough to convince the club. His debut came in August in a 2-2 draw with his current club Bayer Leverkusen. He showed his abilities by assisting the winning goal against Bayern Munich before scoring 2 debut goals in September against VfL Bochum. At the end of the season he had a total of 5 goals and 3 assists in 33 Bundesliga matches before being called up to Germany U-21 at age of 19. Schurrle scored 1 goal and assisted a goal in 3 matches during the U-21 European Qualifications.
At the beginning of the 2010/11 season, Mainz 05 announced an agreement with Bayer Leverkusen for their player André Schürrle who will join at the end of the season. His last season with Mainz 05, he showed his true talents attracting worldwide interest by scoring 15 goals and assisting 5 in 33 matches, coming in 7th in the goalscoring table. With Germany, he scored 3 goals in 5 matches for the senior German team after being called up. He also scored 3 goals in 4 International Friendlies showing his adroitness after his senior call up. He ended his last season by breaking a club record, being the top-goalscorer surpassing the previous record held by Mohamed Zidan, who scored 14 goals in the 2006–07 season. On top of that, he led the club to 5th place who qualified for the UEFA Europa League.
Schürrle signed a 5 year contract in July of 2011, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2016. His debut came in the German Cup against SG Dynamo Dresden where he scored, and the match ended 4-3 to Leverkusen. Weirdly his first Bundesliga match came against his former club Mainz 05 in which he failed to score. On his 7th match against Borussia Mönchengladbach he scored his Bundesliga debut goal. At the end of the season he scored 7 goals in 31 Bundesliga matches with 6 assists, 1 goal in 8 Champions League matches, and a goal in the DFB Pokal. International wise he played under coach Joachim Low in the Euro 2012 appearing twice throughout the whole competition.
Finally we go into the current 2012/13 season, where Schurrle has 6 goals and 5 assists in 22 Bundesliga matches. He also scored 1 goal in 5 Europa League appearances and a goal in 3 DFB Pokal matches. In total Andre Schurrle scored 8 goals and assisted 8 in all of the three competitions.
Style, Strengths and Weaknesses
Andre Schurrle may not be Mario Gotze, Thomas Muller, or Marco Reus but he has the same abilities. He may not be playing for the biggest German club in the Bundesliga, but he has the capability of getting there. The most attribute people think about Schurrle is his class long-shots and his pace. He is a prime example of what the DFB Scouting System began under coach Jurgen Klinsmann. The new Germany Federation are focusing on the youth of Germany and displayed that in recent tournaments. Andre Schurrle possesses pace, acceleration, and is a terror on the left side of the pitch. If he doesn’t have the ball his off-ball movements are outstanding getting himself into the right positions. The most popular movement Andre Schurrle has is cutting in from the left flank into the centre, something Joachim Low is a fan of. His Work Rate is massively good with a completed 43 tackles and 46 interceptions in the year of 2012. On top of that he has the possession, passing, and technique to turn him into a future star. Put on your seatbelts and enjoy the Andre Schurrle’s career ride.
One of the biggest strength’s of the Leverkusen man is his intelligence on the pitch. He can play as the man leading the line, but is at his best when played just behind that man. His pace, and intelligent movement allow him to get into good positions, and drag opposition defenders out of position. Another trait that comes from his mental strength is his speed of thought. One might find Schurrle playing a lot of quick passes quite often, and this can be achieved only when the mind can keep up, and indeed, outpace the game.
His finishing has been labelled as weak in the past, but it is something he is working on. His return of 11 goals in 31 games this season cannot be described as bad by any standards, considering the fact that he isn’t burdened with the responsibility of being the main goal scorer of the team.
His long range shots are very good too, having scored 3 times from outside the box this season. The fact is that Schurrle possesses a very powerful right foot. However, his reliance on this foot makes him a bit predictable, and this might have something to do with him being labelled as a poor finisher. Out of the 11 he’s scored, 10 have been off his right foot.
Along with blistering pace of thought, Schurrle is pretty quick on his feet too. His pace is a key attribute, as Leverkusen look to play a counter attacking game, and this is important for them to exploit the spaces left at the back.
Transfer Situation
Ever since his youth he has been scouted by major European clubs around the world. There was recent interest from Manchester United and Bayern Munich when he was at Mainz 05 but now he has major interest from Chelsea. Chelsea have been scouting him for two years and are desperate for the player to join. With recent rejected bids they will have to wait until the summer transfer window to try again.
We were presented with a very concrete offer from Chelsea for Andre of beyond the €20m mark. The sum was pushed back and forth between the two clubs. We ultimately chose Andre.
Andre is very valuable for us. He has also made it clear he would like to stay with us.
Wolfgang Holzhauser (Leverkusen Chief Executive)
Andre Schurrle was happy with Leverkusen wanting him to stay, but was annoyed on how the transfer happened.
Chelsea’s interest was really concrete. They would have been a very interesting option for me. I understand Leverkusen’s decision not to let go of me, though. However, there were a few things that annoyed me.
I didn’t like that the entire thing was out in the open with all the details. don’t understand why the club went public like that. It didn’t do anybody any good. I would have liked a bit more discretion and protection from Bayer.
Recently he told EuroSport that he is ‘thinking’ of Chelsea. Like many footballers coming through from Germany, Schurrle has the potential of being one of the best in the business. Plenty of European clubs are bound to chase the talented Schurrle. He is currently at one of Bundesliga’s top clubs who have a concrete chance of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. It is now up to the player to decide if he wants to remain in one of Europe’s upcoming top leagues, or cave in to the temptation of playing in the so-called ‘traditional big three’. An interest summer ahead awaits for the young boy from Ludwigshafen.
UPDATE: Andre Schurrle’s move to Chelsea was confirmed on June 13th, 2013.
This article was written by TNC founder, Wayne. You can find him on twitter @TNCProject
Click here to view all our Scout Reports
Featured image used, taken from independent.ie
