Arise, Jamie Gittens.
A young career that has been gently picking up momentum in the Bundesliga burst into the mainstream on Saturday. Borussia Dortmund did not beat Bayern Munich at the Westfalenstadion — they drew 1-1 — but Gittens lit up Germany’s biggest club game with a fabulous first-half goal, becoming the first player to score against Bayern in eight games.
Dortmund could not hold the lead as Jamal Musiala equalised late in the second half to maintain Bayern’s unbeaten domestic record and keep them seven points clear at the top of the table. Nevertheless, Gittens authored the game’s signature moment, beating Konrad Laimer with a cute piece of skill, before racing half the length of the pitch to score past Manuel Neuer.
What a goal. What a moment.
He has certainly captured the imagination of the German media. Bild, the country’s biggest tabloid, described him as a “goldjunge” — golden boy. Kicker, the website, referred to him as an “unterschiedsspieler” — or difference-making player. So, this feels like a significant moment.
Gittens was born in London, raised in Reading and is still only 20. He has been at Dortmund for four years, since leaving Manchester City for €90,000 ($99,000) in 2020, and has been quietly developing outside the Premier League hothouse. Occasionally, his goals and highlights have piqued interest back home. He has even tapped politely on the door of the English national team once or twice.
Now, it’s really more of a steady banging. Thomas Tuchel will start work at St George’s Park in January and one of his first orders of business might be to conclude that Gittens’ abilities — his beguiling skill, his two-footed finishing and his blazing speed — are just too intriguing to ignore.
Gittens’ start to life in Dortmund was frustrating. After arriving in 2020, he missed, cumulatively, almost an entire year of football through a succession of shoulder and ankle injuries.
Dortmund have always thought highly of him and have been privately bullish about his potential. It’s only really over the last 18 months, though, that theory has become reality. Cameo performances in the 2023-24 season has turned into more pronounced impact this season. Gittens has been a much more consistent starter under Nuri Sahin, who was appointed Dortmund head coach in the summer, and he has responded with form, confidence and — ultimately — production.
“His development is great,” Lars Ricken, Dortmund’s chief executive for sport told The Athletic before the game against Bayern Munich.
“When we signed him a couple of years ago, it was really a co-operation between our scouting, professional and youth departments. He perhaps wasn’t on the level of someone like Jadon Sancho, but we said, ‘OK, we can develop him into a great player.’ I think he made his debut under Marco Rose (April 2022), but since then it’s been great development, especially this season. I think last season he never played 90 minutes, but he has improved his playing time and, to be honest, he’s now a player who makes a difference.”
A few hours later, speaking after the game, Ricken was more effusive.
“Jamie is doing an outstanding job,” he said. “He was a standout, including in the way he helped Ramy (Bensebaini) in defence. He has developed into a real difference maker with his goals and assists.”
There it was again: unterschiedsspieler.
He is playing in an imperfect Dortmund side who are still adjusting to Sahin’s coaching. He and they still have work to do. But, one-on-one, he is already one of the most destructive players in European football.
FBref.com ranks him in the 99th percentile for goal-creating actions when taking on an opponent (0.33 per 90 minutes). His 4.08 successful take-ons per 90 minutes rates him in the 98th percentile. His progressive carries, carries into the final third and carries into the penalty area are in the 93rd, 93rd and 95th percentile respectively. Binary description though they may be, it’s certainly compelling. Gittens in time will hopefully add a true ruthlessness to his game, but his trajectory is steep enough. So much so, that comparisons are inevitable.
Being an Englishman in Dortmund comes with certain associations. The more attention he gets, the more likely it becomes that he will be labelled the new this or that. Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham are still fresh in the mind. Truthfully though, he is not comparable to either; three different footballers, three different people and players.
Gittens is a game-breaker. More so than anybody in the current Dortmund squad, he influences matches often out of nowhere with exhilarating bursts. There’s something quite old-fashioned about him. If the Westfalenstadion still had wooden seats, you would hear them clatter shut whenever he touched the ball, as supporters stood in anticipation. There is an intent and purpose to the way he plays; a real ambition.
The goal against Bayern was a fine example of that. With his back to goal, receiving a pass inside his own half, there ought to have been no danger for Laimer. And yet a drop of the shoulder, a step-over, and Gittens was gone, racing away towards an unguarded Neuer.
It would be easy to criticise Laimer and, yes, perhaps he was too tight to his man and too quick to buy the dummy, but from that point on what could anyone really do? Gittens carries the ball at such speed, that Bayern’s only hope — even with 40 yards between him and the goal — was that Neuer would save.
He did not. Gittens beat him high and comprehensively. It was an overwhelming passage of play. A marriage of technical and athletic ability that, this season, has become a recurrent theme. Last week, during Dortmund’s 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League, he opened the scoring in Croatia with a dart infield and a savage hit that thundered into the top corner.
Last month, amid the wreckage of Dortmund’s 5-2 defeat to Real Madrid, the surge he made to the back post to give his team a 2-0 lead in the Bernabeu was forgotten. A shame, because in recognising the opportunity ahead of Real’s defenders and racing into space to convert Donyell Malen’s cross, he produced another one of those moments — smart and incendiary, where there had seemed little danger.
The real Gittens trademark has been seen three times already this season. Against Eintracht Frankfurt on the Bundesliga’s opening day. Versus Club Brugge in the Champions League. And, most recently, during a 4-0 win over Freiburg.
Three goals, all scored in the same way. Squared up against a lone defender, his feet blurring over the ball, Gittens feinted to the left before driving to the right and, with almost no backlift, fired hard across the goalkeeper and in. That move has an Eden Hazard-like quality to it; like Hazard, Gittens’ feet move so quickly that defenders are always a split-second behind, and never able to get in position to block the shot.
This is heady praise and it should really be tempered. Another chance against Bayern, at the start of the second half, was squandered. There are times, too, when Gittens puts the ball at risk or is too ambitious in taking defenders on. He does not yet dominate games, either, and he is yet to show that he can have a strong, steady influence over an entire season.
But this is an exciting moment in a career. A young player, choosing an alternative path through the game, and learning how to best apply his extravagant abilities. It means that most games he plays seem to reveal something new — a touch, a turn, the capacity to hurt a higher standard of opponent.
Add Bayern Munich to a growing list.
(Top photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
