Max Meyer was hailed as the next wonderkid from Germany, but with the new season fast approaching, he is without a club. We focus on how he found himself in his current predicament. Germany has produced some of the world’s brightest footballing talent over the years, with Leroy Sane, Julian Brandt and Timo Werner some of the latest players to be tipped for greatness and Meyer has been included in that bracket. He was a first-team regular at Schalke for five seasons with the team finishing in second behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga last term and reaching the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal cup.
Arguably, Meyer had the best pass-success percentage of the regular first-team squad, completing 89.1 per cent of his passes in his 24 league appearances and contributed massively to Schalke’s successful season. Schalke manager Domenico Tedesco has been credited with Meyer’s progression on the field, moving him away from a No 10 position – which he had played in for most of his career – and into a deeper role.
Max Bielefeld recently said, “Without doubt, Max Meyer is a really talented guy but he had one good season with Schalke.He owes a lot to the new manager Tedesco because what he did was make Meyer play as a defensive midfielder in a No 6 or No 8 position when previously, he was always considered a No 10. That was last season when he played really well.”
Germany’s Schalke reporter Dirk Grosse Schlarmann also credits Meyer’s positional change that better suited his qualities with an improvement in form.
“Meyer was a classic No 10, central midfielder with the final pass, but he had problems with the speed. He is no leader on the pitch – that’s why he had really good matches when the team played well – but when the team needed a leader, he was not there,” he said.
“That’s why Tedesco put him in front of the defence as a No 6. In this position, he played his best matches because he is able to look for the opening pass, he had more time for thinking and the crowd did not expect the final finish from him to win the match. He played very aggressively and that worked.”
Meyer was moved into central midfield from a No 10 role last season. But despite flourishing under Tedesco, Meyer’s relationship with Schalke turned sour in April after he criticised sporting director Christian Heidel, saying : “I simply did not want to stay with Schalke and work under Heidel. It’s all about this. Lately, it just feels like bullying to me.”
He was dismissed from training for the remainder of the season, with Tedesco confused by the change in relationship, saying: “My impression for a long time was that Max felt at home here. That’s what he expressed to the coaching staff. I’m disappointed at his personal attacks and can’t fully understand them as they simply don’t add up.”
It lead to Meyer running down the remainder of his contract until it expired this summer, meaning he is now a free agent – but despite his obvious talent, no one has yet signed him up.
“Meyer has one problem – he has a completely wrong self-assessment. Everybody around him – his agent, Roger Wittmann, his family, the coaches of the youth teams – told him that he is one of the biggest talents, the ‘German Messi’ and after a while, you believe that,” Grosse Schlarmann added.
So where now for Meyer? Media reports have linked him with Arsenal and Liverpool while Tottenham were said to be interested at one stage. Other touted destinations are France and even Turkey, although agent Wittmann is targeting a Premier League move.
Bielefeld explained: “There is no concrete offer yet. They negotiated with Marseille but when they heard about the salary demands, they knew that it wouldn’t happen.