Luca Waldschmidt

Top scorer at Euro Under-21s

- Nick Bidwell

New frontiers are beckoning for the Freiburg ace, whose seven goals for Germany at this summer’s Euro Under-21s earned him the Golden Boot as the tournament’s leading marksman.

Waldschmidt, so influential in his country’s silver medal campaign – scoring in four out of five games and only drawing a blank in the 2-1 loss to Spain in the Final – is suddenly hot property.

Italian sources claim Lazio are desperate to bring him on board, so apparently are RB Leipzig, and it would be no surprise if Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund were to elbow their way to the front of the auction-room queue. Bayern needs a back-up striker for Robert Lewandowski, while Dortmund could certainly use someone of the left-footer’s versatility who is equally effective as a leader of the line or as a second striker.