Breaking through at Bayern Munich as a youth player is exceedingly difficult. Lennart Karl may have made it look easy, but usually one has to compete with an array of stars as an academy player to get game time. Felipe Chávez is in a fairly similar boat. He caught the eye with a bright display in the big 5-0 friendly against RB Salzburg before making his Bundesliga debut against VfL Wolfsburg. But that debut was contingent on five first team players being ruled out through injury and illness.
So how
much do Bayern want to bet on Chávez upsetting the odds like Karl? Or do they want to give the 18-year-old Peruvian international a chance to prove himself on loan? According to a report from Bild, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, the option to do the latter is on the table:
Felipe Chávez has received several loan offers for this month. Clubs from the 2. Bundesliga, Spain and Italy are interested in the 18-year-old. Chávez would prefer to take the next steps in his development at Bayern. But the competition in Bayern’s attack is fierce – and with Musiala back, Chávez’s chances of game time will be slimmer. The decision therefore depends on his performances and the confidence of Vincent Kompany.
Sporting director Christoph Freund also addressed Chávez’s situation.
“We look at each young player individually and discuss matches with them. Pippo has always been involved with the senior players and played very well in the friendly against Salzburg. He has terrific footballing ability and is a very interesting player. He’s developed very well,” said Freund (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).
It is extremely risky to put a youngster into a different team halfway through the season and hope the youngster can adapt and play so well that the coach is willing to trust the player he has for just six months. But those are the risks loans in January naturally carry with them. Perhaps it would be best for Chávez to remain at Bayern until the summer, continue to train with the first team, stay with Bayern’s U-23s in the Regionalliga Bayern and perhaps secure some game time if Die Rekordmeister wrap up the title early. Then the situation can be re-assessed.
Or perhaps the perfect opportunity beckons itself one day. Anything can happen.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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