Paul Wanner’s playstyle is a distinctive, quick, intelligent and nimble one, always thinking 5 steps ahead of the opponent and looking for the most dangerous pass through the opposition defense. Though it is distinctive, however, in the long history of football, it is not quite unique. In fact, there are two players who the Bayern Munich loanee admits particularly influence this style of play:
“(Lionel) Messi. He was and is simply the best player. But I would also say Neymar,” Wanner mused, via Sky Sports. “What he did with the ball, his dribbling – that was really great. Especially his time at Barca. I followed him and Messi a lot back then.”
The (now former) FC Barcelona duo are not the only influences on his life as a footballer, however. In fact, the former FV Ravensburg youth player comes from a family of footballers: “Well, my father used to play in the second Austrian league. According to what he said, he was pretty good (laughs). I don’t know if that’s true. My grandfather played too, but not as high. But from what I’ve heard, he didn’t do too badly either. Maybe I even learned something from them (laughs).”
Though it is up in the air how much the FC Heidenheim player learned from them both, it is clear that his focus on football had to come from somewhere. Did that focus leave any space for a Plan B, if a career in football did not pan out?
“No, it was always just about football. I started with football very early. To be honest, I didn’t think about my Plan B. It was just football.”
