One year after his first appearance off the Schalke bench, Leroy Sane has established himself as a future star in European football. He burst onto the stage in the finest possible way, with a sublime goal from outside the box against Real Madrid in the Champion League.
Leroy has not rested on his laurels though, scoring one of the finest solo goals in recent memory against Wolfsburg on the weekend. So who is this young German and why should you remember his name?
At 19-years-old, Sane is the latest product to emerge from Schalke’s highly rated Knappenschmiede academy. It has produced household names and German World Cup winners Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil and current club captain, Benedikt Howedes. Promising young first team gems Julian Draxler and Max Meyer are also notable graduates. Standing at 183cm, Sane is taller than many modern day attacking midfielders, not gifted with immense strength, but making up for that with agility, skill on the ball and a crisp strike. He favours a mighty left boot, but is also accomplished when using his weaker foot.
It would seem Sane was always destined to make it as an athlete given that his mother, Regina, is the only German female to win an Olympic medal in rhythmic gymnastics. His father, Souleyman, plied his trade in German football’s top two divisions for 1. FC Nurnberg and SG Wattenscheid 09. His goal scoring record is a strong one, netting 116 times in 326 outings.
The German youth international made his first team debut early in 2014, coming off the bench in a 3-1 loss at Stuttgart. He showed enough promise for Schalke to offer him his first professional contract, which will run out in 2017.The dreadlocked whiz-kid had to wait until March this year for Roberto Di Matteo to hand him his first start, validating the decision when he scored in a draw at Hertha Berlin.
Sane has managed to find the back of the net three times in nine appearances this Bundesliga campaign. He also has a 100% strike rate in the Champions League, scoring in his only appearance. Considering his impressive form, Di Matteo will have to decide if he wants Sane to start regularly, particularly given the return of Draxler from injury. The Royal Blues manager also has the option to play Sane as a striker and with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in atrocious form, this seems a more appropriate solution. , Sane has scored once from one of his two starts up-front this season.
The comparison between Sane and high profile players this season is interesting. Boasting 75% shot accuracy per 90 minutes he leads this stat when compared to Ronaldo, Messi, Sanchez and Hazard. His passing game has room for improvement however, completing only 71% of passes and ranking 23rd for pass accuracy at Schalke this season. If he can improve this facet of his game by registering a completion percentage in the high 70’s, it will go a long way to helping Schalke achieve the success they crave.
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Squawka’s performance score per 90 minutes shows that Sane is enjoying a better season than Shinji Kagawa, teammate Max Meyer and the Brazilian international Roberto Firmino. Brazilian manager Dunga recently told the Daily Mail that he believes Firmino could play for any club in the world. With similar statistics to Sane this season, the glaring difference is found in the amount of touches each player averages per game. If the Schalke man is given the opportunity to get on the ball more frequently, he could surpass Firmino statistically next season which would be a major achievement. Given that Sane is four years younger and significantly less experienced, his future seems bright.
Schalke will be keen for Sane to commit his long-term future to the club, with talks already taking place. Sporting executive Horst Heldt believes that future plans can be made around the 19-year-old and that his current contract does not reflect his impressive performances. Sane has said that he feels great at Schalke, and that he is happy that he can stay at the club and continue to play.
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