LEVERKUSEN, Germany - When Javier “Chicharito” Hernández arrived at Bayer Leverkusen in August 2015, the move was seen as a step back in the Mexican star's career at the time. But into his second season in the Bundesliga, there is no doubt that both Hernandez and Leverkusen have emerged as winners in this deal.

The Bundesliga has positioned itself as one of the most important leagues in the world and is currently considered to be at the same level as the Premier League and La Liga. Its reputation owes a lot to the results of the German national team and the achievements of its clubs in the Champions League.

“While English soccer is known for being physical, Spanish soccer is known for being technical and Italian soccer is known for being very tactical," explained Michael Schade, managing director of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. "You could describe the Bundesliga as a league that combines the physical, the technical and the tactical. That is what makes it so attractive.”

It is not only the amount of minutes Chicharito is playing, but the quality of those minutes, that suggest that the Guadalajara-born striker is an increasingly complete player. The versatility of the German style of play is rubbing off on the Mexican who is increasingly more physical, technical and tactical.

Hernández is far from being a selfish striker, obsessed with goals and personal success.

“The most important thing is contributing to the team," he said. "There's no point in me scoring if we're not picking up points. I really enjoy playing football and scoring, but for me it's more important to contribute to the team's good performance. ... I feel good in Leverkusen, but I know I can still improve.”

The 26 goals he scored last season, in 40 games overall for Bayer, are not the only evidence of this. As well as maintaining his great finishing ability in front of goal, his intelligence when it comes to losing his defender and his running off the ball, Chicharito makes his mark on every game because he presses the opposition from the off, and is capable of dropping into his own half to win the ball back, spraying long balls, providing assists and drawing markers to open up space for his teammates.

“Chicharito is a very talented player, with great composure," said teammate Julian Brandt. "Thanks to his experience in Manchester and Real Madrid, he's a great finisher in front of goal. He scores a lot of goals.”

At just 28 years of age, the former Chivas striker is one of Bayer‘s senior players, in a club that has established a new strategy in order to maintain their position as one of the best performing teams in the Champions League in recent years. They are committed to investing in their youth academy, giving chances to young players, going out to press the opposition and using their speed, allied with the experience of Hernández.

“Chicharito joined our team thanks to his footballing quality," said Schade. "We needed a finisher and Javier has an impressive goals-per-game ratio. It wasn't a marketing move. Of course, we're happy that he's so popular with Spanish-speaking fans, especially from Mexico and the United States. But we didn't sign him because he's popular; we brought him in because we knew he would score lots of goals.”

Hernández’s feet remain firmly on the ground. He is not lacking in humility as evidenced during an interview last week in Leverkusen, following a training session and two days before the Mexican netted a hat trick in scoring all of Bayer's goals in a win over Mainz 05, 3-2.

“I am happy to help the team and the Bundesliga gain a wider following outside of Germany," said Chicharito. "But I'm all about giving everything on the pitch and contributing to results. I'm pleased to hear that, thanks to me, more and more people are following Leverkusen and hopefully more players will come and more people will support the team. But for me the bottom line is performing on the pitch."

Chicharito is certainly not the first Mexican player to find some success in Bundesliga.

"I spoke to Pável (Pardo), (Aarón) Galindo and Francisco ‘Maza’ Rodríguez, who is a very good friend of mine, and they all told me good things about the German league," Hernández said. "They all told me that they really enjoyed playing here, because the Bundesliga is very competitive, but above all, because you are given time to acclimatize and show how well you can perform”.

And Javier performs. Against Mainz, Chicharito scored the third hat-trick of his career last Saturday. But most importantly, he eased the pressure on manager Roger Schmidt. Bayer were one-nil down and two-one down before Hernández helped orchestrate the comeback that earned them three points and a vital confidence boost ahead of the Champions League.

But things are not just going well on the pitch.

“I also feel very comfortable in Germany. Lots of people told me about the cold, but winter didn't seem too harsh last year. Compared to Manchester ... any weather is better, except maybe in Russia (laughs). I live in Cologne, which is very close to here. Leverkusen is nice, but Cologne is more like Guadalajara, more movement, a lot of young people, a lot of students and I like the atmosphere in the city,” a smiling Hernández admits.

Germany suits Chicharito. This season, he is once again involved in the race to top the goalscoring charts, and currently sits just one goal behind Robert Lewandowski and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. But the Mexican also suits Germany.

“Javier has certainly been a factor in increasing the popularity of German soccer," Christian Seifert, CEO of the Bundesliga said. "We have seen the welcome that Leverkusen get on their U.S. tours. There's no doubt about it.”

So it would not be unreasonable to think that we may be seeing Chicharito in the Bundesliga for some time.

“I'm not thinking about the national team at the moment. It's something that's a long way off in footballing terms. I can't think about that, because I don't even know if I'll be called up to the next squad," said the second-highest goalscorer on the Mexican National Team. "I'm focused on my goals and the coach's goals. I don't set limits. I don't like feeling like I'm trapped in my comfort zone. I always want more”.

Israel Dehesa is ESPNDeportes.com special correspondent based in Berlin. Read the original Spanish-language version of this story here.