By AADAM PATEL
Published: 12:00 EST, 10 December 2024 | Updated: 12:00 EST, 10 December 2024
In his close circles, they simply call it ‘The Jamie Gittens Goal’. The one they’ve seen so many times. Where the 20-year-old Englishman feints to the left before driving to the right and curls the ball through a crowded box and into the back of the net.
When he did it again for Borussia Dortmund last Saturday against Borussia Monchengladbach, the Dortmund social media account posted the ‘I am inevitable’ quote from supervillain Thanos in the Avengers movies, with the caption, ‘Jamie Gittens whenever he cuts in on his right foot’.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, think of Arjen Robben cutting in and scoring - just from the other flank.
And if you think the hype is a bit much, then it’s worth watching the nine goals that flying left winger Gittens has scored for Dortmund this season, to go with his four assists.
Going into Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Barcelona, the boy from Reading averages a goal or assist every 97 minutes, including strikes against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
He might be the best English player you’ve not yet heard of, and this is his breakout season. In the aftermath of his solo goal against Bayern in Der Klassiker where he finished past Manuel Neuer, the German tabloid Bild called him Goldjunge (golden boy).
Borussia Dortmund's Jamie Gittens might be the best English player that you've not heard of
The 19-year-old is averaging a goal or assist every 97 minutes ahead of the clash with Barcelona
His remarkable solo goal against Bayern Munich earned him the 'golden boy' tag
Jude Bellingham, his former team-mate at Dortmund, says he is one of the best young players in the world. Gittens has followed the same path as Bellingham and Jaden Sancho, with whom he shares an agent, leaving home comforts in England for Germany as talented teenagers and forging a name for themselves in the Bundesliga.
‘I’m going to try and make a name for myself,’ he said in 2020, when he was at Manchester City and would soon leave for Germany. ‘When Sancho was at Man City, he was doing bits in the Under 18s, scoring every game, so in a way, I want to be like him.’ A couple of months later, like Sancho, he was on the way out of Manchester to Dortmund, who paid just €90,000 (£74,300) in compensation.
Four years on, Dortmund value Gittens at €100million (£83million) and last year extended his contract until 2028.
The son of a skilled cricketer with Bajan heritage, Gittens also played cricket in his childhood but football eventually took priority.
He initially went by his longer surname Bynoe-Gittens but at the start of this season took the first part off, saying his father Mark, who provides both sides of the double barrel, had suggested the move.
Martyn Beney, who coached Gittens at Caversham Trents, his first youth club from the age of five to seven, recalls a ‘shy and timid little lad with hardly anything on him’ but that ‘when you gave him a football, his personality changed’.
‘You watch him play now in front of 80-odd thousand and it’s weirdly not that dissimilar to how he played at that age with that burst of speed and the ability to score a goal from anywhere,’ Beney tells Mail Sport.
The driving instructor tells a story of when Caversham needed a goalkeeper and with no one volunteering, Gittens took the responsibility.
Former Dortmund team-mate Jude Bellingham described Gittens as one of the best young players in the world
He has featured up to U21s level for England and won the U19s Euros with them in 2022
‘He went in goal because he wanted to get on with the game,’ Beney adds. ‘We were 3-1 down at half-time so we asked one of the other kids to go in net so we could get him back out. The game finished 4-3 and of course, he scored a hat-trick. We knew he was head and shoulders above his age group.’
At the age of seven he joined his hometown club Reading and, with brief spells at Chelsea, stayed until City came calling in 2018.
Seeing City produce players like Sancho and Brahim Diaz, now of Real Madrid, at the time was part of the appeal.
But it lasted just two years and in Manchester there is an acceptance and a slight embarrassment that perhaps Gittens was one they let go too early.
He was in the same age group as Rico Lewis and staff at City’s academy rated him highly on the ball, but his lack of physicality and role off the ball was a genuine concern.
After two years there, it was unclear whether City were going to offer a future. That’s where Dortmund came in, sensed an opportunity and faced little competition for the then 16-year-old.
For Gittens, who saw Sancho as a role model, he was inspired to make his name abroad.
Lars Ricken, Dortmund’s managing director, trusted the opinion of his scouting experts and like Sancho, Gittens left City’s academy for Dortmund before making a first-team appearance. Even now, Dortmund’s scouts aren’t particularly welcome in Manchester.
Gittens spent a couple of years in Manchester City's academy but they let him go to Dortmund in 2020 - something they look back on with a hint of embarrassment
His former youth coach says he sees Gittens play in a similar style to how he did as a child
His arrival at Dortmund began badly, coinciding with the start of the pandemic and then a torn ligament which kept him out for a few months.
Gittens initially lived in the youth houses at Dortmund’s academy. Learning how to say ‘pass it’ in German was one of the first things he did and now he speaks the language fluently. In Dortmund’s pre-season tour to Asia this year, he did an interview speaking exclusively in German and still uses a private tutor.
Four years on from joining, the word they use for him in the local vernacular is Unterschiedsspieler (difference-maker).
‘City are probably thinking, damn we should have kept hold of this kid,’ says one source close to Gittens.
Without his goals this season Dortmund would be 12th, and he has four goals in his last four.
Asked by Mail Sport on Tuesday about the difference in Gittens this season, his head coach and former Liverpool midfielder Nuri Sahin said: ‘That Jamie who cuts inside and shoots, I’ve known for years. But now he’s making big steps off the ball, defending and pressing and these things help his game.
‘Normally young players never believe when you say this but the moment they feel it that when you counter-press good and when you press high and win the ball, the way to the goal is shorter.
‘I always told him that the moment you get the taste of goals, you will never stop.’
Nuri Sahin said that Gittens is 'brutally good at one-on-ones' - and that he is improving his game off the ball to go with his raw talent
Gittens has already made a mark in the Champions League with four goals this campaign
The hope is that this is not just a purple patch and Gittens can stay fully fit, with injuries and operations on both shoulders slowing him down in recent years. He has cut sugar from his diet and the summer of 2024 was his first pre-season without injury.
Saturday’s game against Monchengladbach was only the third time he’d finished the full 90 minutes in the Bundesliga but this season, he is undroppable.
‘When he is in the penalty area, he’s almost impossible to defend against,’ says Sebastian Kehl, the former Dortmund captain and now sporting director.
Sahin calls him ‘brutally good at one-on-ones’ and it is little surprise that scouts of Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea have all been recent visitors at Dortmund games.
There is a genuine belief in these parts that like Sancho, Bellingham, Ousmane Dembele, Christian Pulisic and Erling Haaland, Gittens will be a massive financial success for Dortmund when he moves on. All five of them were sold in excess of £50m by the age of 21.
And for England? Mail Sport understands that the current plan for Gittens is to travel with the Under 21 squad to Slovakia for the defence of their European Championship title in the summer - though that depends on whether Dortmund need him for the expanded Club World Cup in the United States.
But he is also on the radar of Thomas Tuchel’s senior squad. There is no doubt about his ability but his experience is limited and put simply, those ahead of him are really good.
England have an abundance of quality on the wings already so it is on Gittens to force his way in and he’s ticking all the boxes right now.
The youngster is on the radar of Thomas Tuchel's senior squad but he faces stiff competition
Tuchel noted last season that the Bundesliga is not as challenging as the Premier League
Though it’s worth noting Tuchel’s comments from last season. ‘The Premier League is more robust and demands even more from the players than the Bundesliga. That’s certainly my impression. Mentally, physically and psychologically, it’s at the highest level,’ the new England and former Dortmund manager said. Sancho has struggled to recreate his Bundesliga form since moving over and other examples, such as Timo Werner and Christopher Nkunku, act as warning signs.
But if Gittens carries on the way he’s going, especially in the Champions League, Tuchel will find him impossible to ignore. His stock is only rising.
Times are changing and fast, for the boy who told the Bild newspaper last year that he wants to win the Ballon d’Or.
Asked in an in-house interview on the weekend if this was the most confident Jamie Gittens we’d seen yet.
‘It could be. It could very much so be,’ Gittens said, with a cheeky grin.
Exciting words but not for Barcelona on Wednesday night, who will have watched plenty of clips of ‘The Jamie Gittens Goal’ in preparation - but right now, every game that Gittens plays seems to be revealing something new.
‘I’m so happy for him,’ said Sahin yesterday, ‘and for you guys in English football - because there is someone coming.’
Borussia DortmundChampions League