Emrehan Gedikli: Apprentice with big ambitions

Emrehan Gedikli grew up in Styrum, a district of Mülheim an der Ruhr, but he can justifiably be seen as a homegrown Bayer 04 youngster. He played for the Leverkusen U8 team at the age of seven. Jürgen Haagmans, his coach at the time, taught him the basics of the game as he has done with many other talented youngsters before and after Emre. “Emrehan liked scoring goals for the U8s. That was already the most important thing to him as a child. He didn’t give up until the ball was in the back of the net,” recalls Gedikli’s former patron.

Emre’s parents – his father is from Trabzon and his mother from Tokat in Turkey – brought their son to training nearly every day. That involved a 100-kilometre round trip. “And they also came to every game and tournament,” said Emre, who has lived with the host family, the Czarnieckis, in Opladen for two and a half years. That not only saved his parents a lot of travelling but also helped in the personal development of the 17-year-old.

CZARNIECKI: “EMRE IS A GREAT LAD”

Slawomir Czarniecki was Emre’s coach in the U13s. Today’s head of coordination between the senior squad and the youth teams at Bayer 04 not only recognises his strengths on the pitch, “One of Emre’s greatest strengths is scoring goals. He knows he’s got a lot of work to do and has to improve in many areas. And I’ve told him that too. But I’m completely convinced he will continue to work on his game and can be even better with his finishing”, but also away from the pitch. “Emre is a great lad on the pitch, in his education as well as with us at home. He behaves just as you’d expect a player to. And, above all, as you’d expect from a Bayer 04 player as Emre is a Bayer 04 player through and through. He supports our club 100 per cent,” said Czarniecki.

Emre says about one of his biggest supporters: “Mr Czarniecki has had a big influence on me. He did a lot of tactical work with us. He’s brilliant at explaining things. And today he tells me straight up what I’m doing wrong and what I need to do to be better.” And, as he knows all too well, there’s loads more to do. Even though his career to date has seen a meteoric rise.

Gedikli: ”Have to improve my heading ability”

The 1.84 metre tall bean-pole is a real goal machine. In his first season with the U17s, he scored 25 goals in 26 games in the U17 Bundesliga. An impressive return that was not enough to take top spot in the list of goalscorers because Dortmund’s outstanding talent Youssoufa Moukoko netted 46 goals. “That’s wicked but I have to say I missed loads of chances while Moukoko is just clinical in front of goal and puts them all away,”said Emre. Perhaps it’s even his fault that the U17s finished third last team due to a two-goal worse goal difference than FC Köln – and therefore just missed out on the finals of the Germany U17 championship. Those are not the only self-critical comments from Emre Gedikli. The lad knows he will only realise his dream of a professional career if he clears a number of hurdles. “I need to do more defensive work and improve my heading ability,” he explained. That’s why he’s been doing extra shifts with the U17 coach Jan Hoepner for a while . And they are also working on his heading with the national team. Emre is in Christian Wück’s U17 squad. His big dream of playing in the U17 European Championships in Estonia in May came to nothing as the tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevertheless, it should still be a really important year for him, says Emre. A year where he sets course for a career as a professional. He’s already taken part in several training sessions a week with the U19s. He first made the squad at the start of March for the 3-3 draw in the big match against Borussia Dortmund and, a week later, he made his debut for the U19s with a brief appearance in the 5-0 win in Düsseldorf. “It’s important for him to get match practice,” said Jan Hoepner who has great confidence in the youngster. “Emre definitely has special qualities in front of goal. He’s a classical striker who measures himself by goals he scores, he’s very ambitious but also thinks a lot.” Good qualities to go a long way.

In Spain: Training with Kai Havertz and Co.

Just one day after his debut for the U19s, Emre was in a goalscoring mood with the U17s when he netted all four goals for his team in a 4-1 win against Preußen Münster. Emre discovered how difficult it would be at the top of the game at the Werkself winter training camp in La Manga in Spain. He was with the Germany U17 squad at their training camp on site. But he was able to join in with a training session under Peter Bosz once. “A massive experience. But you can also see that there’s a huge difference in the level between the U17s and U19s. The first team players are all really good and it was difficult to keep up.” But countless youth players have had similar experiences before him. It was no different for Kai Havertz in his first training session with the senior squad. He is by far the biggest role model for all youth players at the Kurtekotten academy. The one that lads like Emre Gedikli are keen to imitate.

Last season, his second with the U17s, the Werkself youth side finished fifth with a points average of 1.9 per game behind Schalke 04 (2.0) and ahead of VfL Bochum (1.38). Emre missed several games due to a back injury. In spite of that, he scored 17 goals and was level top in the goalscorers list with FC Köln’s Wydra when the season was abandoned after 21 games.

As keen as he is to score himself: As captain of the U17s, Emre has primarily thought about the team first. “Perhaps, we don’t quite have the individual quality in the squad as last season but we’re really giving our all as a team. The team spirit is great.” He often played behind the front line and set up goals rather than scoring them himself. “I actually feel more at home as a classic striker in the box because you can score more goals,” said Emre. But if the situation demands it then he is happy to take the role as playmaker. His big role model is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. “He’s a bit of a big mouth but he usually backs up his words with deeds,” says Emre. “I say the same before every game: I’m going to score three goals today. It works sometimes but not on others. Words like that motivate me.”

“Emre is a very ambitious apprentice”

Emre also makes a committed impression at his workplace in the service centre in the East Stand. He deals with ticket enquiries and will soon be putting on a headset and talk to customers on the phone. Nick Behnke, head of customer service at Bayer 04, is very impressed by the apprentice: “Emre is a very ambitious apprentice who thinks about what he’s doing and does his duty with great ambition.”

The budding management assistant in sport and fitness spent his first year at the Bayer 04 shop in Wiesdorf. Interesting but also tiring as he had to spend the whole day on his feet. It’s certainly not the worst experience for a young player when he is able to discover how many people are working hard for the success of the club in a range of areas. “Before my course, I didn’t have much idea as I only knew about the youth section,” said Emre. “Now I know that the team ethic at Bayer 04 goes far beyond the football sides and involves all members of staff.” Emre has the opportunity to enjoy the Black and Red sense of community over the next two years in a dual fashion: as a player and an apprentice.