Leroy Sané has been in very good form of late. The Bayern Munich and Germany winger is finally living up to his promise, coming up with top-class performances for both his club and country consistently. Irrespective of whoever takes the charge of the German national team prior to the European Championship on home soil in 2024, Sane will have to shoulder a lot of responsibility if the hosts are to do well in it.
A great start to the season
The 27-year-old has made a great start to the season. He has scored three goals in five matches for Bayern Munich so far and two for Germany in five international matches. This is despite Die Mannschaft‘s recent struggles. Sané prefers to play on the left flank, but has had to play on the right more frequently this season. This is his club and national teammate Serge Gnabry starts on the left.
However, his dribbling skills have been as effective as ever through the right flank. What has been a revelation for him is his finishing skills, which have come to the fore recently. His ability to finish from the corner of the penalty box has helped his team immensely. The fact that both his club and ountry prefer to play with a 4-3-3 formation has also helped his cause.
With a striker like Harry Kane playing alongside him at Bayern, Sané can realistically aim at winning the UEFA Champions League – a title that has eluded him so far. He has won domestic leagues title with both Manchester City and Bayern, however.
Sané’s potential was not fully realized at Manchester City
Sané spent four seasons at Manchester City, winning a couple of Premier League titles with them. He scored 39 goals for them in 135 matches, which is a decent return by any standard. However, he has became a better player since his move to Bayern Munich in 2020. He found it more difficult to feature in the starting eleven for the Cityzens than he is at Bayern at the moment.
As for the national team, Sane was not picked for the World Cup in 2018 and did not share the best of relations with Joachim Löw, the then manager of Die Mannschaft. He was, however, picked for Euro 2020 that saw him play as a winger, but Löw’s questionable decision of starting with Gnabry as the No. 9 did not help Germany’s cause.
Then came the disastrous World Cup campaign in 2022 that saw Germany go out from the group stage. However, Sané impressed in patches for Germany in an otherwise disappointing campaign.
This season could turn out to be a defining one for him
Bayern has been drawn alongside Manchester United, Galatasaray, and FC Copenhagen in their UEFA Champions League group. They will look to qualify from their group with relative ease. However, the Bavarians will look to improve upon their exit from the quarterfinal stage last season. The same goes for the German national team, which will hope to get to the podium in the European championships next year.
Sané will play a critical role in both the above endeavours. Should he be able to play to his immense potential, the current season might turn out to be the best one in his career yet.