Who is Patrik Schick, the Hero of the EURO 2020 Championship?

Patrik Schick is the most frequent name you’ll hear from soccer fans these days. The fantastic striker already has three goals scored at EURO 2020, topping the list of the goalscorers and filling the media headlines.

A fantastic goal against Scotland in the opening game already fired up the social media, and is bound to become the best goal of the tournament. It catapulted Schick to the stratosphere, putting him in the center of attention.

But who is the 25-year old?

Schick currently plays for Bayer Leverkusen, where he arrived after bumpy several years that saw him moving from one club to another. Even though this guy showed great potential, the managers and the club boards never really had 100% faith in him.

The way he plays at EURO, we just might see that changing, with numerous clubs already planning to make a move after the prolific goalscorer. The Czech Republic is on the verge of advancing to the knockout stage, and all that is because of Schick, who was relentless in the opening 180 minutes.

⚠️ | QUICK STAT

Patrick Schick has just become the first player to score 3 goals at #EURO2020:

⚽️⚽️ vs Scotland
⚽️ vs Croatia

Only Vladimír Šmicer (4) and Milan Baroš (5) have scored more goals at the European Championships for Czech Republic than Schick. 👏👏#CROCZE pic.twitter.com/d5yodBJ1g9

— Sofascore (@SofascoreINT) June 18, 2021

After suffering a strong hit in the nose, that earned the Czechs a penalty, bloody but confident Schick took matters into his own hands, beating the Croatian goalkeeper Livakovic. This was his 14th goal in the national team, and arguably the biggest one so far. Just to say that he played only 28 games for the Czech Republic.

Schick began his career at Sparta Prague, where he eventually reached the first team. But after seeing that he won’t have any chance of playing and perfecting his skills in this team, he went on a loan to Bohemians.

In 28 matches, he netted 8 times, which was a reason for the call-up to the national team. Soon afterward, the Italian club, Sampdoria, gave 4 million euros for his transfer and the 20-year old ended up in Genoa. In his first and only year here, he had 35 matches played and 13 goals scored, becoming one of the sensations in the Italian Serie A.

AS Roma didn’t want to wait, but bought the player for 17 million euros which was the entire sum of the deal that was partially paid.

However, Il Lupi’s head coaches didn’t have the patience and knowledge for Schick, who often played a winger, despite his 6’2” height. The player left Rome in 2019, after 58 games played and just eight goals. He was labeled as one of the biggest busts over the previous few years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2wsvL3y0AM

With the 2019 campaign starting, Schick got the call from RB Leipzig to come, which became his best decision ever. The Czech had 28 games and 10 goals, but RB played extremely well, finishing third in Bundesliga and suffering elimination in the semis of the UEFA Champions League.

Timo Werner and Schick were functioning perfectly, until the German departed for Chelsea. For some reason, after that happened, the Bulls moved away from Schick, not using their rights to buy him first because he spent the entire season on loan in Leipzig.

Bayern Leverkusen saw that as a perfect chance for solving their striker problem. The team from Bay Arena paid 26.5 million euros to Roma plus some bonuses for Schick. Their investment began paying off almost immediately.

Schick scored 13 goals in 36 matches and considering that he has a five-year deal with Bayern, there is plenty of time for him to become one of the best, if not the best, striker in Bundesliga.

Until that, we are going to enjoy his magic at EURO 2020.