\n<\/p>\n
Scoring in almost every league game and impressing in the UEFA Youth League, Leverkusen head coach Xabi Alonso called Stepanov up to the senior squad. While he remained an unused substitute in the Bundesliga, he made his first appearance as a substitute during the 5-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League in November 2024. <\/span><\/p>\n “Right now, it feels like a dream,” he said after the final whistle. “I’ve always wanted to play in the Champions League. I’m very, very happy.”<\/span><\/p>\n Although he was nervous, Stepanov’s confidence grew, and he was soon giving instructions to experienced midfielder and captain Granit Xhaka. “I told him where he should stand for the corner. Then I told him he was well positioned. I helped him,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Xhaka had already grown to adore the youngster, saying: “You can see his stats in the U19s. He hasn’t been in Germany that long, but he’s settled in very well and speaks good German. That’s very important for him, that he understands things. He’s incredibly down-to-earth and a good listener.<\/span><\/p>\n “For his age, he has a huge physique and knows how to use it. He also knows exactly where the goal is, which is crucial for a striker.”<\/span><\/p>\n It was an uplifting start, but only one more brief appearance followed – against Sparta Prague – before Leverkusen sent Stepanov on loan to second-tier side Nuremberg in the summer of 2025. Unable to get going under coach Miroslav Klose, the deal was terminated midway through the campaign and a move across the border to Utrecht was arranged in the winter window.<\/span><\/p>\n Thrown almost immediately into the Eredivisie side’s starting XI, it took the teenager a few weeks to break his duck. His maiden strike – a penalty against AZ – not only earned him the Player of the Match award, but kick started a run of four goals in five matches.<\/span><\/p>\n Utrecht came close to qualifying for the Conference League via the Eredivisie play-offs, with Stepanov scoring in the semi-final, but Ajax beat them on penalties in the final.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scoring in almost every league game and impressing in the UEFA Youth League, Leverkusen head…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}