Why Florian Wirtz Won Bundesliga Player of the Season 2023/24

The official 2023/24 winner and what the award recognised

Florian Wirtz won the official Bundesliga Player of the Season award for 2023/24. He was the attacking reference point of Bayer Leverkusen's first championship team, combining double-figure goals and assists with the ability to change the shape of an attack. His case rested on both sustained influence and memorable decisive moments, rather than simply finishing at the top of one statistical category.

The award discussed here is the DFL and EA SPORTS honour. It should be kept separate from Leverkusen's own supporter vote, a players' union award or the German Footballer of the Year title. Similar names can make those competitions look interchangeable in search results, but they have different electorates and criteria. Wirtz's recognition was the first official Bundesliga Player of the Season win for a Leverkusen player.

Three monthly awards established a season-long case

Wirtz had already been named Player of the Month for October and December 2023 and February 2024. Those awards are useful evidence of how widely his strongest performances were spread. They cover the autumn establishing Leverkusen as serious contenders, the run towards the winter break and the spring period when the title challenge became increasingly convincing. The seasonal honour was therefore more than a reaction to a famous final celebration.

The club's contemporary explanation described a seasonal field drawn from monthly winners. It included Stuttgart's Serhou Guirassy and Deniz Undav, together with Wirtz's Leverkusen teammates Victor Boniface and Alejandro Grimaldo. That is a strong group of contrasting roles: prolific forwards, a powerful striker, an exceptional attacking wing-back and the playmaker connecting Leverkusen's possession. Wirtz's win recognised his contribution within that competition; it did not imply those other seasons lacked quality.

There is an important limit to any explanation of why he won. The confirmed result and the performances are public; an exact account of every voter's reasoning is not. The football analysis below explains the strength of his case without inventing vote totals or claiming that one moment mathematically decided the ballot. Watch the whole campaign and the logic becomes clear: Wirtz could create an opening, finish an opening and help the team regain the control needed to create another.

The numbers behind Wirtz's breakthrough campaign

Wirtz finished the Bundesliga season with 11 goals and 11 assists in 32 appearances, using the league's published assist convention. That gives him 22 direct goal involvements in league football, with scoring and creation contributing equally to the total. The balance matters because his role was not restricted to supplying a striker or arriving for the final shot; he could perform both jobs within the same attacking move.

Competition scope is essential here. Leverkusen also played in the Europa League and DFB Cup, so an all-competitions total answers a different question. Adding European assists to Bundesliga goals produces a flattering but unusable comparison. For this award analysis, the domestic league record is the anchor. It allows Wirtz to be compared with players competing under the same schedule, while the wider season can supply context without changing the arithmetic.

Those 32 appearances also show that he was a regular part of the title campaign rather than an occasional specialist. Leverkusen played 34 league games, and an appearance can be a start or a substitute outing. The distinction prevents a crude conclusion that dividing involvements by appearances gives the exact rate at which he influenced full matches. Minutes, role and game state still matter when interpreting any per-game calculation.

Leverkusen's team record adds scale. They finished with 28 victories, six draws and no defeats, collecting 90 points and scoring 89 goals. Wirtz was one central contributor to that achievement, but those figures belong to the whole team. They do not mean he personally caused every win or that teammates' work can be removed from the story. A playmaker needs the passing structure and runners that make creative choices available.

The useful reading of the numbers is therefore both strong and bounded: he delivered a rare combination of finishing and creation while playing repeatedly for an exceptional champion. They support the visual impression of a player involved at several stages of an attack. For the full championship context, our historical Bundesliga tables guide explains how Leverkusen's final record compares with the seasons around it.

How Alonso's system made Wirtz decisive

Alonso gave Wirtz freedom within a clear collective structure. Leverkusen's familiar 3-4-2-1 placed two attacking midfielders behind a centre-forward, with wing-backs supplying width and a pair of central midfielders controlling the circulation underneath. Wirtz could move away from a fixed central position because teammates still occupied the spaces needed to keep the attack connected. Freedom worked because responsibilities elsewhere remained clear.

Receiving between the opposition lines

The critical space was often behind an opponent's midfield but in front of its defence. Receiving there gives an attacker a difficult first task: control the ball while opponents can approach from several directions. Wirtz's first touch and awareness allowed him to turn a potentially awkward reception into an advantage. If a defender stepped out, a passing lane could open behind him; if he stayed, Wirtz had time to carry forward.

His combinations also stopped the position becoming an exercise in waiting for a perfect pass. A short exchange could move a marker, return the ball on a better angle and let Wirtz continue into the next space. The league's contemporary analysis emphasised his one-twos and accurate passing as well as his dribbling. The point is not that every touch had to be spectacular. Reliable small actions made the next ambitious action possible.

Combining with wing-backs and the centre-forward

Grimaldo on the left and Frimpong on the right forced opponents to respect the full width of the pitch. That made Wirtz's inside positioning more dangerous. A narrow defence risked allowing the wing-backs room; a stretched defence risked leaving pockets for the attacking midfielders. Wirtz could combine outside, come back inside or release a forward, rather than being asked to solve every possession through the same route.

Behind him, Xhaka and either Palacios or Andrich helped maintain the platform. Their availability for a return pass let an attack restart when a gap closed. Ahead of him, Boniface or Schick offered a different reference point and occupied central defenders. This is the tactical reason the season cannot be reduced to one gifted player improvising alone: Wirtz's choices became harder to defend because the rest of the team made several choices credible.

He also contributed when Leverkusen lost possession. An attacking midfielder who presses and reconnects with midfield helps the team keep opponents under pressure after an attack breaks down. That work does not always end with his name on the scoring graphic, yet it can create the next spell of possession. In this system, creativity and responsibility supported each other. Wirtz could be a decisive individual precisely because he remained involved in the collective rhythm.

Three league games that explain the award

Three matches show different parts of the case: the 2-1 home win over Freiburg on 29 October 2023, the 3-0 victory against Bayern Munich on 10 February 2024 and the 5-0 defeat of Werder Bremen on 14 April. They do not constitute a complete season, but they are useful windows into how Wirtz could influence tightly defended games, a high-pressure title meeting and a decisive championship occasion.

Against Freiburg, he opened the scoring in the 36th minute with the solo effort later voted Germany's 2023 Goal of the Year by Sportschau viewers. The value lies in the problem he solved: when an opponent protects the penalty area, a short burst of close control can create the shooting angle that repeated circulation has not yet produced. The award-winning finish is memorable, but the changes of direction before it explain why the chance existed.

The Bayern game required a different discipline. Alonso adjusted his usual approach and Leverkusen spent longer defending compactly. Wirtz had to contribute to that plan before finding space in possession, moving from the front of the defensive shape towards his creative role when the ball changed hands. He combined with Grimaldo for the second goal. This was an example of a playmaker helping a strategy work against elite opposition, rather than needing every possession to revolve around a solo run.

Bremen provided the defining celebration. Introduced at half-time, Wirtz scored in the 68th, 84th and 90th minutes to complete his first senior hat-trick. Boniface's penalty and Xhaka's long-range finish had already put Leverkusen ahead, so the historical achievement was collective. Wirtz then supplied the finishes that turned the final stretch into an extraordinary release of emotion. The win secured the club's first Bundesliga title with five league matches remaining.

Taken together, the games resist a narrow description of his season. Freiburg highlights individual technique; Bayern highlights positioning, teamwork and tactical adaptation; Bremen highlights his ability to finish moves himself. A player who can provide all three gives a coach different ways to win. Opponents cannot simply deny one favourite pass and assume the threat has disappeared.

That variety is why rewatching these matches tells you more than counting the most popular clips. Look at where Wirtz receives, who runs beyond him and what he does immediately after releasing the ball. The spectacular moments become easier to understand when placed inside the possession and the match situation. They were not detached tricks: they helped a team turn control, pressure or a lead into results.

Why Player of the Season was not a top-scorer prize

Player of the Season and top scorer are different honours. Harry Kane won the 2023/24 Bundesliga scoring crown with 36 goals, while Wirtz won the official seasonal player vote. There is no contradiction: one competition has an objective goals total at its centre, while the other asks voters to evaluate a broader contribution. Wirtz did not need to score more than Kane to have a compelling case for the latter.

Kane and Guirassy offered different kinds of excellence

Kane's debut Bundesliga campaign was extraordinary in its own terms. Thirty-six league goals gave Bayern a prolific centre-forward, and the achievement deserves to stand without a qualification attached to every mention. Guirassy scored 28 for Stuttgart, another remarkable return, as his team finished second. Those are not inconvenient facts for an analysis of Wirtz; they explain the quality of the league in which his overall influence was recognised.

Comparing them requires a clear question. If you want the player who scored most, the league table of scorers answers it. If you want to understand a playmaker's contribution to the champion, you need to examine how attacks developed, how defensive pressure was escaped and how teammates were brought into dangerous situations. That is not a claim that assists automatically outweigh goals. It is a recognition that a player's responsibility shapes the actions available to him.

Team success forms part of the context without providing an automatic individual ranking. Leverkusen finished unbeaten on 90 points, Stuttgart second on 73 and Bayern third on 72. A champion's leading creator naturally attracts attention, but every member of a winning team does not thereby become better than every rival. Wirtz's case needed his own performances as well as the historical achievement surrounding them. The balance between the two is what makes the award debate interesting.

There is also a difference between acknowledging a plausible alternative and rewriting the confirmed outcome. Supporters can reasonably value Kane's finishing or Guirassy's role in Stuttgart's rise very highly. The official award still belongs to Wirtz. An honest account can explain why his varied contribution was exceptional while admitting that comparing different football roles always involves judgement rather than a single universally accepted calculation.

The best way to revisit the season is therefore to keep its honours distinct. Kane's scoring crown records unmatched production in front of goal; Wirtz's Player of the Season award records recognition of his campaign as a whole. Understanding both makes the history richer. It also avoids the familiar error of using one award to dismiss an achievement that was never measuring exactly the same thing.

What Wirtz's 2023/24 season changed

The 2023/24 campaign changed Wirtz's standing because it showed he could be a leading figure in a team delivering a major achievement, rather than only a gifted player associated with future potential. He turned 21 in May 2024, but the football he had already played carried adult responsibilities: finding solutions against organised opponents, contributing without the ball and handling the pressure of a title race that became historically significant.

The season was also his first full campaign after recovering from the serious knee injury suffered in 2022. That context adds meaning without requiring the injury to explain every later performance. Returning to play is one milestone; sustaining an influential role across a championship season is another. His availability and impact over 32 league appearances made the recovery visible in the ordinary rhythm of matches as well as in the spectacular highlights.

Leverkusen ultimately won a domestic double, adding the DFB Cup to the Bundesliga. Their 3-0 Europa League final defeat by Atalanta means the complete campaign was not unbeaten in every competition. Keeping that distinction clear protects the extraordinary league achievement from exaggeration. An unbeaten 34-game Bundesliga season needs no invented perfect ending to remain exceptional, and Wirtz's award remains a league-season honour rather than a guarantee that no opponent could stop him.

For supporters, that final provides a useful reminder about the limits of individual brilliance. A coherent opponent can close receiving spaces, apply pressure and disrupt combinations even against an outstanding player. That does not erase what came before. It shows why the technical quality described throughout this guide depended on timing and team relationships, rather than functioning as a superpower that worked regardless of the match plan.

The enduring lesson of Wirtz's award is that a modern playmaker can influence a title campaign through several connected skills. He could retain possession under pressure, move a marker with a short combination, release a runner, press to regain the ball and finish a chance himself. The goals and assists supply evidence of end product; the tactical role explains why he repeatedly arrived in positions to produce it.

Revisit the campaign with that combination in mind and the award becomes easier to understand. The result identifies Wirtz as the official 2023/24 winner. The league numbers show balanced production. The Freiburg, Bayern and Bremen matches demonstrate different forms of decisive influence. Together, they explain why this particular season remains a defining chapter in his Bundesliga career and in the history of Leverkusen's first championship team.