Failed Wonderkid #23- Lewis Holtby

Biodata

Full Name: Lewis Harry Holtby

Nationality: German

Date of Birth: 18 September 1990

Position: Midfielder

Current Club: Blackburn Rovers

Current Market Price: 850k Euro (Updated on Apr 2020)

Highest Market Price: 11.00mil Euro (Oct 2012)

Former Clubs:

2007- 2009 Alemannia Aachen

2009- 2013 Schalke 04

2010 VfL Bochum (loan)

2010- 2011 Mainz 05 (loan)

2013- 2015 Tottenham Hotspur

2014 Fulham (loan)

2014- 2015 Hamburger SV (loan)

2015- 2019 Hamburger SV

International Career:

2010- 2012 Germany

Achievement:

Schalke 04

2011 DFL Supercup

Career

Mainz 05 started their 2010-2011 Bundesliga campaign in style as they registered 7 straight wins in a row and they had beat the likes of Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich in this unbelievable run. They had also been on top of the table for 5 matches in the process. This incredible run had helped Mainz 05 to finished on 5th place in the league and some players had started to gain attention from the limelight. One of the players who got attention from football fans is Lewis Holtby.

Lewis Holtby started his football career in an amateur side, Sparta Gerderath at the age of 4. He was also part of the Borussia Monchengladbach youth team member too, but the club let him goal 3 years after he joined the club. Holtby was then joined Alemannia Aachen youth side at the age of 14, where he signed his first professional contract 3 years later. His professional debut came on December 2007, where he replaced Mirko Casper for the remaining 10 minutes of the match. The following season was his breakout season as the manager shifted Holtby to a more attacking left-wing position. His performance was outstanding in his new position as he scored 8 goals and registered 10 assists in all competitions, helping Alemannia Aachen to finish 4th in the 2.Bundesliga.

His performances in 2.Bundesliga had certainly impressed numerous clubs in Bundesliga. In the end, Schalke 04 was the one who signed him on a four-year deal on July 2009. His first match for his new club came on a DFB Pokal match against the lower division Germania Windeck on August 2009. He was then played 9 league games, during which he registered 2 assists. On January 2010, Holtby was loaned out to VfL Bochum for 18 months to help them to avoid relegation. He immediately caught the eye of the fans of VfL Bochum when he registered an assist to Zlatko Dedic’s equalising goal against Bayer Leverkusen. Holtby’s performance in VfL Bochum was outstanding where he scored and assisted twice in 14 league matches. However, the team was still relegated after a string of bad performances in the latter stage of the league. His loan spell was subsequently cut short after the relegation.

In order to gain more playing time, Holtby was once again loaned out for the 2010-2011 season, this time to Mainz 05. His loan spell in Mainz 05 started in the best possible way as he formed a formidable partnership between Adam Szalai and Andre Schurrle under the guidance of Thomas Tuchel to help the club to seven successive wins at the beginning of the season. Mainz 05 was also on the top of the table for several matchdays. This impressive performance had handed him his national team call-up and earned himself his first national team cap against Sweden in November 2010. Holtby ended the season in a spectacular way as he helped Mainz 05 to a fifth-placed finish, 9 places above his parent club Schalke 04, scoring 6 goals and 10 assists in all competition.

Holtby continued his form when he returned to Schalke 04 and appeared in the DFL-Supercup match, which he started and played the entire match against Borussia Dortmund. He started to establish himself as an elite player as he had played 41 matches in the 2011-2012 season, scoring 9 goals and registered 5 assists in the process. His contributions fired Schalke 04 to a third-place finish in that season. He even improved his game in the 2012-2013 season as he scored 4 goals and 11 assists in all competition for the first half of the season. However, Holtby decided not to extend his contract with Schalke 04 which was set to expire at the end of 2012-2012 season. In the January transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur announced the signing of Holtby in a pre-contract and he will join the team in July 2013. However, the serious injury of Sandro had forced Tottenham to fast track their transfer to January.

His first match in the Tottenham shirt was on two days later when he replaced Clint Dempsey for the remaining 20 minutes against Norwich in Carrow Road. Holtby had a slow start to adapt to the English Premier League as he only registered 2 assists in all competitions in the first half-season in White Hart Lane. He only scored his first Tottenham goal on August 2013 in a Europa League play-off round against Dinamo Tbilisi. However, Holtby still failed to replicate his form in Germany and struggled to break into the starting eleven under Tim Sherwood as they preferred Gylfi Sigurdsson and Christian Eriksen in the team. In order to gain more playing time, Holtby was loaned out to Fulham to help them to escape relegation. Despite his 1 goal and 3 assists throughout his stay in Craven Cottage, Fulham was relegated to the Championship.

After playing sparingly in Tottenham, Holtby decided to return to Germany to join Hamburger SV on loan with an obligation to buy. Despite only registered 2 assists in all competition, Hamburger SV still exercised their buyout clause to sign Holtby permanently after they managed to escape relegation through play-offs. Since then, Holtby slowly rediscovered his form. He scored 10 goals and 10 assists in the next 3 seasons in Bundesliga for Hamburger SV. However, Hamburger SV was relegated to 2.Bundesliga despite Holtby scored 6 goals in the league. Despite relegation, Holtby signed a one-year contract extension to remain with the club to charge for immediate promotion back to the Bundesliga. In 2.Bundesliga, Holtby scored 4 goals and 5 assists in the league. However, Hamburger SV failed to secure promotion and Holtby left the club at the end of the season.

Holtby returned to England to join the Championship side, Blackburn Rovers after he was left Germany. His debut for Blackburn was against Reading where he replaced Adam Armstrong for the remaining 20 minutes of the match. He started to play regularly in Ewood Park as he scored 3 goals and 2 assists in the league before he suffered a serious ligament injury in a match against Middlesbrough. Holtby returned to the pitch after the league lockdown and played all of the remaining matches. In which Blackburn Rovers finished in 11th placed in the league.

Verdict

Disappointment Rate: 8/10. With his glorious day was far behind, Holtby is definitely the shadow of his former self. However, he still has the chance to return to the top league if he helped Blackburn Rovers to get promotion to the Premier League. But unfortunately, he was not the same player that took Mainz 05 by storm 10 years ago.

#Holtby #Germany #Mainz #Tottenham #HamburgerSV