"Josh Sargent can be a top Bundesliga striker" - Florian Kohfeldt

Sargent has started 17 of Bremen's 19 matches in the league this season - his second full campaign of German top-flight football.

As well as registering two goals and as many assists, the 20-year-old has won more challenges than any other Werder player (239), and is averaging a team-high 29 sprints per game.

Watch: Florian Kohfeldt talks up Josh Sargent

For Kohfeldt, the Bremen No.19 has a very bright future indeed.

"I see him on the way to being a complete striker," he told bundesliga.com following Die Grün-Weißen's 1-1 draw with Schalke on Matchday 19. "He can be one of the league's top strikers."

Few know Sargent better. It was Kohfeldt who promoted the American to the Bremen first team during the first half of the 2018/19 season and proceeded to hand him his professional debut in a league win over Fortuna Düsseldorf on 12 December 2019.

Watch: Sargent scored his eighth Bundesliga goal in Werder's 4-1 win over Hertha Berlin on Matchday 18 of 2020/21

Sargent scored 86 seconds in, with his first touch at that, and repeated the trick from the bench on his third top-flight outing, in a 3-2 defeat to RB Leipzig. He made his first start in a 1-1 draw with VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 22 of the campaign, before earning a full-time place in the senior side ahead of 2019/20.

Sargent started 15 of his 23 Bundesliga appearances last term, producing four goals, including one in the final-day rout of Cologne which snatched Werder a place in the relegation play-offs. The Missouri native was a late substitute in the goalless first leg with Heidenheim, but made a decisive contribution when recalled to the starting line-up for the reverse tie. His fifth assist of the season helped the Green-Whites battle to a 2-2 draw and preserve their top-tier status on the away goals rule.

Sargent has been a first-team regular ever since, also finding the net in DFB Cup wins over Carl Zeiss Jena and Hannover. The 12-time US international will go into Werder's last-16 meeting with Bundesliga 2 outfit Greuther Fürth on 2 February with 10 goals and eight assists to show for his first 64 competitive appearances as a Bremen player.

Kohfeldt only expects those numbers to swell in the months and years ahead.

"I don't know if it'll take one year or half a year or two weeks, I'm not sure and I can't say," he said of Sargent's prospects. "But if he stays like this - he is very, very calm in the locker room and he is focused, and on the pitch he's full of energy - he will one day be one of the league's top strikers, I'm completely sure."