Today, October 22, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will play in the Champions League. The finalists of last season’s draw will meet in Madrid. Four and a half months ago, the Spaniards won the final with a score of 2:0 and became the winners of the trophy. Now the Germans will try to take revenge, and one of the main figures in the attack for Nuri Sahin’s team will be Englishman Jamie Gittens. The 20-year-old winger is following in Dortmund the footsteps of fellow Real Madrid star-turned Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho. Gittens is in the running for the best young player award in Europe and is on the pencil of top clubs.
What’s good about Gittens? He has already won the European Championship with the England team
Gittens is the third Englishman in the history of the Dortmund club. In all cases, Dortmund signed a young player in order to promote him and then sell him for big money. Winger Sancho moved from the Manchester City academy in 2017 at the age of 17 for €20.5 million (according to Transfermarkt), played four seasons with the German team and went to Manchester United for €85 million. Attacking midfielder Bellingham also joined Dortmund as a 17-year-old. He was bought from Birmingham City, which played in the Championship (second division of the English championship), for 30.1 million euros. After three seasons in Dortmund, Jude was sold to Real Madrid for €113 million.
Gittens was born near London – in Reading. He started playing football in the local Caversham Trents team, and at the age of seven he entered Reading School. Then he ended up at Chelsea, but soon returned home and continued to study at the Reading academy. Jamie trained there until he was fourteen.
Gittens stood out among his peers and received invitations from the academies of Manchester City and Arsenal. Choosing between the football schools of two top clubs in England, the young player went where Sancho was. Jamie rememberedhow he accepted the invitation of Manchester City.
“At first I didn’t believe they were interested in me. I’m from a small town in the middle of nowhere. When they told me they wanted to sign me, I was surprised, but I thought all the hard work I had put in was paying off. It was an easy decision. I could have gone to Arsenal, but I chose Manchester City because they were producing players like Jadon Sancho and Brahim Diaz.”
At the age of 15, Gittens was already playing for England a year older. Then he played for all the other youth national teams from U16 to U19. In the summer of 2022, the then 17-year-old winger won gold at the U19 European Championship with the England team, which took place in Slovakia.
At that tournament, England first won their group, defeating Austria (2:0), Serbia (4:0) and Israel (1:0). After that, they beat Italy in the semifinals (2:1) and Israel in the final (3:1). Gittens, despite being the youngest member of the national team, took part in four matches and was a starter in the decisive game. However, the main stars of the British were still others – Jamie did not show any effective actions.
Just that year, Gittens was promoted from the Borussia Dortmund youth team to the first team. The Englishman moved to Germany back in September 2020. The German club did not have to pay for Jamie, who decided to develop his career following the path of one of his favorite football players, Sancho.
Unfortunately, the promising player’s progress was slowed down by injuries. Gittens missed four months at the start of the 2021-22 season with a torn ankle ligament. And he barely recovered when he dropped out again due to a shoulder injury. But he didn’t miss very much, so his debut for the Borussia first team was not delayed for long.
At first, Gittens showed himself brilliantly in the UEFA Youth League, an analogue of the Champions League for players under 19 years of age. In five matches with peers from the Turkish Besiktas, the Portuguese Sporting, the Italian Empoli, the Spanish Atlético and Manchester United, the winger scored six goals. The then head coach of Borussia, Marco Rose, brought the Englishman into the fold, and in April 2022, Jamie made his debut in the German championship. In the home match of the 30th round with Wolfsburg, he came on as a substitute for the last five minutes. Before the end of the season, he took part in three more Bundesliga games.
“His talent needs no words. He has everything to take a big step forward here with us,” spoke After Gittens’ debut for the first team, Borussia midfielder Julian Brandt.
Since the 2022/23 season – already under Edin Terzic – the Englishman has truly gained a foothold in Borussia’s main team. The new coach praised Gittens’ qualities very highly – technique, speed, ability to beat one on one. Terzic, like Brandt, was not afraid to publicly praise Jamie.
And another young talent of Borussia – Karim Adeyemi – highlighted the Englishman’s strongest side. “He’s not afraid of anything. To be honest, for me he is one of the best one-on-one players I have ever seen. He’s going to be a really big player.”
Gittens is being watched by top clubs in Europe. He is in the top 25 best young players
Already in his first match of the 2022/23 Bundesliga season, Gittens scored his first goal for Borussia against Freiburg away. Having come on as a substitute when the score was 0:1, Jamie scored the return goal for Dortmund and helped the team to a strong victory – 3:1. Following the bright start came another shoulder injury. Jamie required surgery, which kept him out for three months until the end of 2022. He missed the entire group stage of the Champions League.
After recovery, Gittens, as a rule, came on as a substitute, took part in two matches of the Champions League playoffs with Chelsea, and in the Bundesliga he scored two goals against Augsburg and Werder Bremen and made one assist.
The 2023/24 season was supposed to be a breakthrough for Gittens, but the Englishman’s shoulder continued to bother him. The winger missed virtually the entire preseason, recovering from another injury from early May to mid-August. Jamie had to gain form as the season progressed, so at first he either remained on the bench or received minimal playing time. Nevertheless, in some matches he showed himself very clearly. For example, in a Champions League group stage meeting with Milan (3:1) in Italy, Gittens earned a penalty when the score was 0:0 and then scored the winning goal. At the beginning of 2024, the Englishman had a productive streak in the German championship. As a result, the winger took part in 34 matches and was included in the starting lineup 18 times. He scored two goals and eight assists. But in the most important game of his career to date – the Champions League final with Real (0:2) – Jamie appeared on the field only at the end, when the Spaniards had already made the result.
This season, everything is going well for the Englishman from the first matches. In the Champions League, Gittens scored a double against Belgian Brugge in the opening round, and earned a penalty against Celtic in the second. In the Bundesliga, the winger scored 2+2 in seven games. According to the statistical site Sofascore.com, Jamie is the best in the team in terms of the number of dribbles in the German championship (17) and in the top three in terms of fouls earned (7) and duels won (31).
“This is my first pre-season where I haven’t had any injuries,” spoke Gittens. “So it’s new for me, finding a rhythm, how to do everything.” But now I feel good – energetic and stronger than before.”
Jamie admittedwhich works on injury prevention to put shoulder problems behind us, stabilize fitness, and improve performance at the same time. “I go to the gym as often as possible to avoid getting hurt. I would like to score more goals and provide more assists than last season. I hope we win the trophy.”
If Gittens continues in the same spirit, then next summer his transfer to a top club could take place. It was reported about the interest in the winger from the top clubs in England – Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham. Transfermarkt already values the 20-year-old player at 35 million euros. It is possible that Jamie will continue to follow the path of Sancho, who has been playing for Chelsea since this season.
In October, Gittens was named among 25 candidates for the Golden Boy Award, the European Young Player of the Year award. In addition to the Englishman, the list included Lamin Yamal, Pau Kubarsi (both Barcelona, Spain), Joao Neves, Warren Zaire-Emery, Désiré Douhet (all PSG, France), Alejandro Garnacho, Kobby Mainu, Leni Yoro (all Manchester United, England), Savio, Rico Lewis (both Manchester City, England), Aleksandar Pavlovich, Mathis Tel (both Bayern, Germany), Yorrell Hato (Ajax, Netherlands), Kenan Yildiz, Samuel Mbangula (both Juventus, Italy), Christian Mosquera (Valencia, Spain), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace, England), Arda Guler, Endrik (both Real Madrid, Spain), Oscar Gluh ( Red Bull Salzburg, Austria), Samuel Omorodion (Porto, Portugal), Wilson Odobert (Tottenham, England), Andreas Skjellerup (Benfica, Portugal), Elisse Ben-Segir (Monaco, France) .
A year earlier, Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham, who won the Golden Boy award in 2023, named Gittens as a contender for the award. “Who will win the Golden Boy in the future? I’ll name three. The first is Arda Guler. He is a phenomenon, we see how he trains and we are delighted with him. Then my former teammate Jamie Bynoe-Gittens from Borussia Dortmund. And finally, my brother Job (Sunderland midfielder) is a pure striker, like our father,” spoke ex-Borussia Dortmund player.
Until recently, Jamie was known as Bynoe-Gittens. But the Englishman decided to “shorten” his last name for professional performances. At his father’s request, the Borussia winger will not use the first part. “Both surnames belong to my father, but he said it would be better if I just go by Gittens because it’s shorter. Most people know him as Gittens, so in the future I will only be called Gittens,” said the Englishman, whose ancestors are from Barbados.
