David Wagner launched Marcel Halstenberg’s career – now the RB Leipzig defender is on the radar of Everton.
It’s a measure of the huge depth in talent at Joachim Low’s disposal that Germany won both the European Under-21 Champions and the Confederations Cup with second-string sides this summer – and highly-rated left-back Marcel Halstenberg was nowhere to be seen.
With first choice German left-back Jonas Hector on the sidelines, however, Halstenberg was finally rewarded for his fine performances at RB Leipzig with an international debut in Friday’s goalless draw with England.
And to cap the 26-year-old’s rise from relative obscurity, Halstenberg has now, somewhat inevitably, been linked with a move to the Premier League. The Mail report that Everton watched the former St Pauli defender in action at Wembley.
With age catching up to 32-year-old left-back Leighton Baines, The Toffees are making a sensible decision planning for the future with Halstenberg identified as a potential successor to the long-serving number three.
But will Everton have competition? Possibly from a manager who set Halstenberg’s career in motion.
Toffees or Terriers?
It was the charasmatic, bespectacled tactician who spotted Halstenberg’s potential on the flanks and shifted him across to left-back – a role that the Laatzen-born talent has now made his own for Leipzig and possibly for Germany too.
And with compatriot Chris Lowe struggling to prove that he has the requisite quality to make the step up to the Premier League, Wagner should consider getting his old protégé on the phone with the January transfer window on the horizon.
Then again, it might take more than a genial relationship to convince Halstenberg to give up Champions League football at Leipzig.
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