Wirtz is youngest scorer in Bundesliga at 17 years, 34 days

• Union Berlin's Anthony Ujah calls on players to fight racism

Bayer Leverkusen substitute Florian Wirtz has become the youngest person to score a goal in the Bundesliga at age 17 years, 34 days, with an impressive strike against Bayern Munich on Saturday.

The attacking midfielder came on for the second half and wrongfooted Lucas Hernandez – the most expensive player in the league – before lifting the ball over Bayern 'keeper Manuel Neuer inside the far post for Leverkusen's consolation goal in a 4-2 defeat.

Wirtz is 48 days younger than previous record-holder Nuri Sahin, who scored for Borussia Dortmund against Nuremberg on Nov. 26, 2005.

"A big talent here in Germany, a really good player and he has great technique," Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes said during a video conference call. "He has the ability to move in the open spaces. He has a good first touch, a very good first touch. Can score, as you can see."

It was Wirtz's fourth Bundesliga appearance since he switched in January to Leverkusen from Rhine rival Cologne.

"We are really happy to have the biggest talent at his age here in Leverkusen," Rolfes said

The next youngest goal-scorers in Germany after Sahin are Julian Draxler, Timo Werner and American Christian Pulisic, who was 17 years, 212 days when he scored his first goal for Dortmund against Hamburger SV in 2016.

Wirtz is not the first young player to make the breakthrough at Leverkusen, whose biggest star Kai Havertz established himself in midfield at age 17. Havertz, now 20, has been linked with a bigmoney move to Bayern or Real Madrid.

Rolfes said young players thrive at Leverkusen "because they get the opportunity to train with the professional team. In other clubs, it's most of the time different."

Leverkusen says it likes to test young players against the best.

"Our strategy is that they get in really early, because they can adapt. Really top players adapt very fast. You can see that in the training, in each training, from the first training until the first Bundesliga game," Rolfes said. "You can see their improvement."

Union Berlin's Anthony Ujah calls on players to fight racism

Union Berlin striker Anthony Ujah has encouraged his fellow soccer players to be more proactive in the fight against racism.

"When I look at a player like Thomas Müller, who means so much to the Germans, then even one (social media) post from him is a strong statement," Ujah wrote in a guest editorial in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Saturday.

"Everybody in the world of soccer knows who Thomas Müller is. And every child who wants to be like Thomas Müller, or like Manuel Neuer or Joshua Kimmich, and who follows their idol on social media can see where the stars stand."

Müller, a forward for Germany and Bayern Munich, posted a tweet on Thursday in which he made his statements against racism.

"The signal should be that it doesn't matter how we look or how we speak. I don't know how to explain, but sports has the power to bring people together," Müller said in a video that also showed other Bundesliga players' gestures last weekend.

Ujah was the first Bundesliga player to react on social media to last month's killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee for several minutes on his neck.

Others, including American players Weston McKennie, Zack Steffen and Tyler Adams also expressed solidarity with social media posts and/or on-field statements.

In 2014, Ujah also protested the death of another black man, Eric Garner, who died after a police officer placed him in what appeared to be a chokehold. Garner said, "I can't breathe", before he died, words repeated by Floyd on May 25.

"If I manage to get just five or 10 people to change their way of thinking about me, then I've fulfilled my role," Ujah wrote. "Anything that someone does is better than doing nothing."

The 29-year-old Nigerian said he was fully concentrated on Union's goal of achieving Bundesliga survival, but that if he scores against Schalke on Sunday, "I have the chance for my campaign. That's how I did it in the past and that's how I will continue to do it in the future."