How 'German Messi' Maximilian Meyer came to facing Hibs

There was a moment during last week's Europa Conference League qualifying between Hibernian and Luzern that caused The Fixture to do a double take. Dylan Vente, the newly signed forward from the Netherlands, picked up the ball around halfway and was immediately flattened by the kind of agricultural challenge you're more likely to find on a Saturday morning parks' pitch. It was the kind of tackle that you'd ordinarily expect to warrant a red card but for reasons best known to himself the referee, Robertas Valikonis, flashed a yellow instead.

However, it wasn't so much the nature of the tackle that surprised The Fixture but rather it was the player – Max Meyer – who dished it out that caught our attention. Meyer was once the golden boy of German football. He won an Olympic silver medal in Rio in 2016 at the age of 21, then won a European Under-21 Championship with Germany just a year later and was named in the team of the tournament. A further confirmation of his talents came with recognition by the German FA, with him twice finishing second in the Fritz Walter awards, the medal handed out to young German players by the DFB to signify the most promising players in the country.

On the second occasion, in 2014, he placed ahead of future Bayern Munich and Germany captain Joshua Kimmich.

His dribbling skills drew comparisons with Lionel Messi and his breakthrough at Schalke had him being talked about in the same breath as Leroy Sane, Julien Brandt and Leon Goretzka, a status that was franked when he was given the No.7 at Schalke which had just been vacated by the Spain legend, Raul, who enjoyed a memorable swansong at the Bundesliga outfit. His first season ended impressively with Meyer registering nine goals and four assists, which earned him a place in Joachim Low's provisional squad for the 2014 World Cup.

Meyer did not quite live up to the Messi hype, though, and while he still played nearly 200 games for Schalke – from 2013-2018 – it became apparent that he was not as quick or as consistent as at first believed. As such he was moved from his No.10 position to a more defensive role under the head coach Domenico Tedesco in his final season at the club.

Having refused to sign a new contract at Schalke, he headed for England, but those clubs that had previously been interested in signing him such as Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham were nowhere to be seen and Meyer joined Crystal Palace instead.

So what happened?

"Meyer has one problem – he has a completely wrong self-assessment. Everybody around him – his agent, Roger Wittmann, his family, the coaches of the youth teams – told him that he is one of the biggest talents, the 'German Messi' and after a while, you believe that," journalist Dirk Grosse Schlarmann said of the falling out that led to him running down his contract at Schalke in 2018. "His agent told everyone that Meyer is world class, he has to earn about €8m [£7.5m] per year and he is able to play only for the best clubs in the world. But now they have to recognise that the top clubs do not think that they are right with their opinion."

And it seems that assertion hit the nail squarely on the head. Meyer had an inglorious spell at Palace, who attempted to play him in his previous attacking position. In 56 games in South London, he scored just twice, and then embarked on an itinerant career path which took in a season at Cologne, a year in Turkey at Fenerbahce, a loan spell at Midtjylland, where he won a Danish Cup medal, before he joined Luzern last season.

The move to the Swiss team has brought an upturn in fortunes for Meyer, who recorded 11 goals and five assists in 29 games, last season (and added another assist to that tally against Hibs last week). For his part, he seems more content with his lot at Luzern, where he has been made captain, and said earlier this summer: "Here I am appreciated and here I am allowed to play. I think it's difficult not to feel comfortable here."