Granit Xhaka can look back on a year full of highlights. He played at the highest level with both the Swiss national team and Leverkusen.
06.01.2025, 04:05
SDA
The last twelve months have been Granit Xhaka's best yet. The 32-year-old has impressed as a leader and playmaker. His winning mentality radiated to his team-mates at Leverkusen and in the national team. He made those around him better with his passes and words. The Basel player's sense of entitlement, which has been repeatedly criticized in the past, was worth its weight in gold. Before the European Championship, he cleverly and successfully called on Manuel Akanji to take on even more responsibility in the national team.
Together with Xhaka, Akanji was then the most influential Swiss player in Germany on the way to the European Championship quarter-finals, which were only narrowly lost to England on penalties. As a new signing and intelligent pace-setter, Xhaka helped Leverkusen to an almost perfect season. Only the defeat in the Europa League final against Atalanta Bergamo, the only one of the entire season, prevented a third title. With the first Bundesliga triumph and the cup win, Leverkusen were nevertheless better than ever before.
The move from Arsenal to Leverkusen, which many observers had not understood, proved to be a good move in Xhaka's career, which, in addition to 135 international matches, includes almost 600 games at the highest club level. But he is still a long way from reaching his goal. The record-breaking Swiss international with the good overview is already planning for the time after his retirement. After two years of training, he obtained his A license this summer, the second-highest in the coaching business.
