Kai Havertz: A season full of records

Kai Havertz had an impressive season in 2018/19 and often made the difference. The now 20-year-old played a significant part in the Werkself qualifying for the Champions League for a twelfth time with his 17 goals and four assists. We have put together a few numbers, stats and facts on the midfielder to reflect his impressive season.

In a vote held at the end of last season, Havertz was named the best outfield player in 2018/19 in a survey of his Bundesliga colleagues organised by the Kicker sports journal. He came out on top in the survey of 250 first division pros with 20.8 per cent of the votes just ahead of Marco Reus of Borussia Dortmund who had 20 per cent.

Voted the best outfield player, Havertz had very impressive passing stats in the 34 games played last season. 90 per cent of all his passes found a team-mate – the best return in the league for an attacking player. The only other Bayer 04 player to beat the youngster was Jonathan Tah with 92 per cent.

The regulars in the team: In addition to Kevin Volland, Kai Havertz was the only Werkself player who played in all 34 Bundesliga fixtures last term. The three-time Germany international made 33 starts. Only once was the 20-year-old brought on and that was in the 3-1 home win for the Werkself against Bayern Munich on matchday 20.

With a top speed of 35.02 km/h, Havertz was the fastest midfielder in the league last season. That phenomenal value was recorded on matchday one in the duel with Borussia Mönchengladbach that ended in a 2-0 defeat for the Werkself.

Believe it or not, Havertz scored the opening goal for Bayer 04 nine times – more often than any other player for the Black and Reds. In addition, his eleven goals in the second half of the season secured the lead in every game – the highest number in the Bundesliga in 2019!

Rudi Völler on Kai Havertz:

„Kai is a talent of the century. It's second nature to him the way he strokes the ball around and he does things that appear to be incredibly simple to him with absolute calm.

In the away game at VfL Wolfsburg (3-0) on matchday 19, Kai became the youngest player to score a penalty in the club's history at the age of just 19 years and 229 days.

With 17 goals to his credit, his 778 challenges with the highest number of all Bayer 04 players last season. Runner-up to him was Julian Brandt (627) who is now at Borussia Dortmund.

The home-grown Bayer 04 player was the youngest player in Europe's top five leagues last season to find the back of the net 17 times. With that impressive record, Havertz was more successful than the 19-year-old Joao Felix who scored 15 goals for Benfica in the last campaign.

Havertz had 88 shots at goal last season and he was only one behind team-mate Kevin Volland (89) in 2018/19.