IN a flash, Jamie Gittens has become Borussia Dortmund’s heir-apparent to Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho.
At 20 years old and 75 days, Gittens became the youngest English player to score against Real Madrid in the Champions League, when he put Dortmund two goals ahead at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
Gittens beat former Leeds forward Alan Smith by about two months with his clever back-post run and simple finish to establish a stunning two-goal lead over the holders after half an hour.
But despite going on to lose 5-2 in Madrid, courtesy of a Vinicius Junior second half hat-trick, Gittens has cemented his name in the Champions League history books after being subbed off at 2-0 in the 55th minute.
In fact, only Harry Kane (four) has more European goals than Gittens, who has three, this season.
The England wonderkid, who previously went by the surname Bynoe-Gittens before changing it on his Barbadian dad’s advice, is in the form of his life.
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He has scored six goals and registered three assists in 11 games in all competitions this season.
After making history on Tuesday, he told TNT Sports: “To lose how we did should not have happened. But this stadium is so magical. They have great players to make impacts and they did it again tonight.”
Gittens scored Dortmund’s first two goals in their last Champions League outing as they beat Club Brugge 3-0, after a stoppage-time penalty from Serhou Guirassy.
The Reading-born winger has already starred in a European final, coming on from the bench at Wembley when Madrid won their 15th title in June.
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Gittens went the Sancho route of joining Dortmund straight from Manchester City’s academy four years ago.
He has since made 51 Bundesliga appearances for Dortmund since joining the first team from the Under-19 side in July 2022.
Bellingham named his fellow Englishman as his successor to the Golden Boy award when the Madrid superstar won it in December.
Gittens signed up with Reading at Under-9 level after rejecting an invitation to switch to Chelsea.
He told Secret Scout: “I’m from Reading and started when I was about four.
“I was playing for a little local team called Cavs and Trents from the age of five to seven.
“My dad used to play cricket so I was caught between football and cricket.
“I played a little but obviously football turned out better. I then went to Reading, and was also at Chelsea too for a bit.
“I got to U9s level where I had to pick between Reading and Chelsea. I picked Reading and stayed there until U14s.”
He eventually moved north to join Man City’s Under-15s.
His train to City would take three hours so he would stay with a host family up there and joined a new school in Manchester. The distance was tough on both him and his family.
Gittens revealed he also turned down approaches from Arsenal to move to Manchester.
He said: “It was an easy decision. I could have gone to Arsenal but I chose City because they were producing players like Brahim Diaz and Jadon Sancho back then.
“At the start, I didn’t really believe it. I’m from a small town in the middle of nowhere.
“When they told me that they wanted me, I was just surprised, but thought that all the hard work I had put in was paying off.”
He was highly-rated at City but in 2020 moved to Dortmund, believing it would provide him a quicker route to the first team.
England fans are already getting excited at the prospect of Dortmund developing another Three Lions talent.
Gittens could be set to earn himself an England call-up as new boss Thomas Tuchel will be fully aware of his talent, having faced him as Bayern Munich manager in March.
A month into his training with us, we were thinking ‘Christ, this boy has got some serious ability’. His dribbling was incredible, even as a six-year-old
Coach Martyn Beney
Gittens played the final half-an-hour of Dortmund’s 2-0 win over Bayern in March.
Although he has grown up in Dortmund, he has been progressing through England’s youth levels.
The winger was part of England’s triumphant Under-19 Euro campaign two years ago, starting the 3-1 win over Israel in the final alongside recent senior call-up Jarell Quansah.
He has made 10 appearances for England’s Under-21s and is set to play a prominent role under Lee Carsley, who will return to the fold after a three-camp stint with the first-team.
Martyn Beney coached Gittens as a seven-year-old at local club Caversham Trents, who also produced female star Fran Kirby.
The 49-year-old told SunSport earlier this year: “A month into his training with us, we were thinking ‘Christ, this boy has got some serious ability’. His dribbling was incredible, even as a six-year-old.
“Jamie was a shy boy behind the scenes, with a really nice, sporty family, but they didn’t push him.
“They said they wanted him to be coached in a way where he could enjoy it, learn a few things along the way and can develop naturally. That’s exactly what we did.
“We worked out quickly that he was a goal-scorer, and he scored a ridiculous number of goals.
“But he was happy to play anywhere. He would even go in goal at times and he wasn’t bad.”
His German is developing nicely too, after three and a half years of three lessons a week, and is even conducting parts of some interviews in it.
He has also had to curb his sweet-tooth ways in his bid to reach the top, confessing: “When I was younger, I used to always eat chocolate and sweets.
“I had to cut that out. Now I try to avoid sugar as much as I can.”
Future England star?
Jamie Gittens was born in Reading in August 2004.
He was outstanding at a very early age, and played at Chelsea’s famous Cobham Academy aged eight.
Gittens went to Reading before moving to Man City’s academy in 2018.
He moved to Borussia Dortmund in 2020, and made his debut in the Bundesliga in April 2022, against Wolfsburg.
He is a winger blessed with pace, outstanding dribbling skills and a cool head in front of goal
Gittens has played for England at U15, U16, U18, U19 and U21 levels, but could also represent Barbados.
The talented wideman’s new lease of life has coincided with using a shorter version of his surname on the back of his shirt.
In August 2024, Dortmund announced that he would play under the surname “Gittens”, rather than “Bynoe-Gittens” as he had previously used.
Gittens told Dortmund’s official website: “Both are my father’s names, but he said he thinks it’s better if I’m just called Gittens because it’s shorter.
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“Most people know him as Gittens, so in the future, I’ll only wear Gittens.”
The “shorter the better” he told German outlet Bild.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
