Florian Wirtz, Shohei Ohtani and the 50-50s

Liverpool have been strongly linked with Florian Wirtz. The Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder excels in multiple metrics.

May 28, 2025

Thoughts are with everyone affected by the incident at the Liverpool parade on Monday. Love to all.

It’s hard to be the best at everything. We can’t all be Mohamed Salah.

Liverpool’s number 11 led the 2024/25 Premier League for goals and assists, with his combined total of 47 equalling the competition record. Salah finished 18 goal contributions ahead of the runner-up, Alexander Isak, which is the widest margin from first to second in the modern era.

Do you like baseball? If you don’t - you’re missing out - you’ve probably still heard of Shohei Ohtani. A pitcher and designated hitter for reigning World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers, he is arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport.

Ohtani hit the second most home runs (54) and stole the second most bases (59) in 2024, earning the third Most Valuable Player award of his MLB career. Even though he didn’t top the standings for either stat, he became the first player in history to record at least 50 of both. There is no 50-50 club, it’s just Ohtani.

Football doesn’t have an equivalent. Any mountainous total of goal contributions will always tip towards scoring rather than setting up. Baseball players are at a significant advantage in counting stats, as they step up to the plate four-to-five times almost every night in a 162 game regular season.

There are still numerous metrics in which footballers can record 50 actions in a campaign. If they’re not all as important as a homer or a stolen base, there are at least plenty which help teams win matches.

One player who has ticked off a lot of 50s in his career is Florian Wirtz, the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder who is reportedly close to moving to Liverpool.

The 22-year-old isn’t a record-setter, a Salah or Ohtani-equivalent. He is a hugely versatile, gifted footballer whose variety of skills can help the Reds win a lot of matches. Few players of such tender age have joined as many vital 50 clubs in one season as Wirtz just has.

We have to be careful when filtering players by their attacking stats. Continually adding criteria will eventually leave you with nobody, or likely just Lionel Messi.

Starting with shots and chances created feels sensible. Wirtz was the only player to feature in the top 10 for both metrics in the 2024/25 Bundesliga, with 74 and 57 respectively.

However, this 50-50 club has been joined over 400 times in Europe’s big five leagues over the last eight seasons. Iago Aspas has qualified in six of those campaigns, maybe the Reds should sign him?

(Salah is the only player with a perfect eight inclusions. What a guy #OnlySalah).

When it came to completing open play passes into the penalty area in 2023/24, Wirtz led the Bundesliga with 82. While his figure dipped by 17 this season, his total for carries into the box rose from 45 to 53. This granted him membership of another 50-50 group, taking third place in Germany for each metric along the way.

Entry into this club is a little more exclusive. Not even Salah has made 50 passes and carries into the penalty area every season since 2017/18; he has to settle for every season since 2018/19 instead. The other three men with at least three such campaigns in the last eight? Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Rafael Leão. These are at the exciting level young attackers should aspire to reach (no offence, Iago).

The penalty area is just a set of arbitrary white lines. Beyond the buzz of excitement that builds when a goal attempt looks likely, simply carrying the ball into the box may not mean that much. Fans love to see one of their heroes glide past an opponent, taking them out of the game for a moment or two. That gets people on their feet.

Wirtz’s rate for successful dribbles has risen with each season in which he has played more than 1,100 Bundesliga minutes. Way back in 2020/21 he logged 60 in total, rising to top of the pops in Germany this season with 82. This tied him for sixth in the big five leagues with Vinicius Júnior.

We have our five metrics which cover shooting, creating, passes and carries into the box plus successful take-ons. With an entry level of 50, it’s a pentathlon of peak performance.

Prior to last weekend, there had been 50 instances of a player reaching all five marks in a season in England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain since 2017/18. That was too perfect for words, so Mbappé completed his 50th penalty area pass of the campaign with about an hour remaining in Real Madrid’s season to record the 51st example of 50-50-50-50-50.

With some players (yes, Salah) doing this multiple times, only 34 different men have had a season which qualifies. Wirtz isn’t the first Florian, but he is one of the youngest footballers on the list.

Wirtz has been outdone in each category at some point. Some of Lamine Yamal’s numbers are absurd for any player, never mind a 17-year-old. Most men on the list played more minutes than the reported Liverpool target too though.

If we set our bars to 53 in each metric and a maximum of the 2,351 minutes that the German international played this term, there are only three other examples: Rayan Cherki, Neymar and Josip Iličić. Oh damn, we’ve filtered too much.

Ohtani got at least 54 in his main two categories but Wirtz’s 53 in five key attacking metrics sets him apart from all except a very few in his field. He’s special, so special.