2019/23 Wataru Endo | 2021- Hiroki Ito | 2022- Anrie Chase @ VfB Stuttgart (GER)

Endo was the only Stuttgart player to make it to Kicker's Bundesliga 2 team of the season. Without him, Stuttgart wouldn't have gotten promoted.

 

He has really grown. Impressive. And he has the taken the long route. Belgium, Bundesliga 2 and now Bundesliga. Respect!!

 

Played the whole match as DMF in a 3-1-4-2 today, and had a great match. Early chance with a header, the first two goals were team movements he started with great passes each.

@Dax Can you update the title? Endo extended until 2022.

 

Ranked as the 11th best player so far in Bundesliga. He is doing something right. Adapting fast to B1. Great.

 

Endo has won 60 1v1 challenges so far this season, which leads the entire 1.Bundesliga.

 

Impressing indeed. Who thought?

 

Kicker's team of the week for the second time.

He is now 5th overall and 1st among midfielders. Only Kramaric, Lewandowski, Haaland and Hummels are ahead of him. This guy is unstoppable.

 

So damn impressive!

 

We are delighted to announce that Wataru Endo has signed a new contract with the Club, which runs until 30th June 2024. 🤝✍️#VfB @wataru0209 pic.twitter.com/shoHXKTt70

— VfB Stuttgart_int (@VfB_int) November 26, 2020

 

The German counterpart is a little more extensive. Sporting director Mislintat (seen in the tweet):
"With his footballing qualities, but also with his mentality and his professional attitude, Wataru is a leader in the best sense of the word. He identifies with VfB, with our path and with the way we want to play football. Wataru is highly recognized by his teammates and has even exceeded our expectations with his performances so far. We are therefore very happy about his early contract extension and thank Wataru for his trust."

@Dax can you update the year in the title? Thanks!

 

He's turning out to be Mr. Consistency. Does his job day in and day out.

Different type of player, but Hasebe's been doing it for a long time. Hope Endo has a long career in Europe ahead of him as well.

 

Endo W. vs Endo K. ends in a draw. Wataru played the whole match while Keita watched it from the bench. Union led for 5/6 of the match before VfB through Kalajdzic managed a late comeback.

 

Nice piece on VfB. At this pace Endo will get a lot of shouts for Bundesliga team of the season.

https://firsttimefinish.co.uk/2020/12/23/vfb-stuttgart-young-talented-and-sustainable/

 

Admittedly a random time to look this up, but impressive nonetheless, showing his valuation at the club: So far Endo played every single minute of every match this season (18), and is already the only player at VfB to do so (GK Kobel was rested in one cup match).

 

Not sure how old that is and how often that already happened, but today the usual captain Gonzalo Castro was subbed out and Endo got the captain's armband in his place.

 

Kicker rated Endo in the 2nd tier ("International Class") of Bundesliga defensive midfielders, alongside Goretzka, Sabitzer, Neuhaus, and Baumgartlinger.

 

Gonzalo Castro is subbed off due to injury in the Friday night match against Mainz, and Endo straps on the captain's armband in his place.

 

Hasebe vibes.

 

Just scored.

 

And an assist for the 4th goal.
Edit: Assist for the 5th goal as well. Full time 5-1.

 

And another assist for Endo.

5-1 win for Stuttgart and 2 goals + 2 assists for Wataru.

 

Goal !