The critique of Bayern Munich’s youth system has magnified over the past year. Though the likes of Jamal Musiala, Josip Stanišić and Aleksandar Pavlović have made their way from the youth teams to the senior team in recent years, many more players have left, deciding their careers would be better off elsewhere. In truth, the Bayern Campus has been struggling over the years.
One example of these struggles was the Bavarians’ refusal to hire a loan manager. Can you believe Bayern did not have a loan manager until
2023? The club would send players on loan, leave the academy coaches to take time out of their busy days to choose which of the dozens of loan players to contact every now and then, and then usually leave the loan players to feel completely disconnected from the club? Loaning a player out before 2023 felt like the death sentence of their time at Bayern.
Fortunately, sporting director Christoph Freund’s arrival in 2023 saw him immediately look to restructure campus and one of his first moves was, thankfully, to immediately hire a loan manager in Richard Kitzbichler. Several other structural changes followed, too.
But how much worth can one put in these structural changes without any outward proof of them working well? There has been a lot of frustration at head coach Vincent Kompany’s reluctance to place faith in any of the young players. And Sport Bild reporter Tobi Altschäffl claims, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, that some of that frustration comes from the Campus itself:
There’s a lot of frustration at the FC Bayern Campus due to the lack of integration of youth talents into the first team. Despite the fact there are around 40 international youth players in the academy born between 2006 and 2009, there has not been enough first-team integration recently. U19 players only had a combined 53 minutes of game time with the first team last season. That should change from next season.
However, Freund puts a different spin on the situation.
“At the Club World Cup in the USA, we deliberately gave many talented players the opportunity to spend a longer period with the first team. Lennart Karl, Adam Aznou, Leon Klanac, Cassiano Kiala, Jonah Kusi-Asare, and David Santos Daiber, as well as Wisdom Mike, will continue to train regularly with the pros. We have big confidence in these young players: Everyone has the chance to make their own way,” said Freund. “The door is open—that also applies to other talented players. Almost 50% of our youth players become professionals – it means that FC Bayern’s ability to promote talent into professional football is very good, both in Germany and internationally.”
Does Freund have a point? One can argue he is right about Bayern’s successful integration of young players into professionals, but little of that happens in Munich. Perhaps the club needs to aim for more.
More from bavarianfootballworks.com:
- A forgettable international match day for all Bayern Munich players involved
- Czech Republic vs Germany lineup, discussion: Time, TV schedule and how to watch World Cup Qualifiers online
- ‘What about Thomas Müller?' Support pours in for Bayern Munich's troubled icon
- BFW Transfer Deadline Day 2017 live thread
- Kingsley Coman confident of his part in Bayern Munich’s plans this season
- Report: Renato Sanches set for loan move to Swansea
- Would this guy be the perfect backup for Robert Lewandowski?
