Fritz Walter was the first Germany captain to lead his nation to World Cup glory by beating Hungary’s golden generation in 1954. After Walter’s death in 2002, the award was created and named after him. Since then, three players, the men and women deemed the top talents in Germany at both U-17 and U-19 level, have been awarded the gold, silver or bronze medals every year. This year, the 2007 and 2009 born talents are eligible for the award.
This year, Bayern Munich has just one name on the list in
Cassiano Kiala. The 2009 born center back received the silver medal, finishing behind Kennet Eichhorn. Bayern’s official website captured the words of the Bavarians’ head of youth development, Michael Wiesinger, as he reacts to Kiala’s award: “The Fritz Walter Medal has a long tradition in German youth football, so congratulations to Cassiano for this award. He has made fantastic progress since joining us from Berlin and already celebrated his professional debut last December. We are very excited to see how he continues to develop.”
The full list was captured by Bundesliga.com and can be seen here:
U-19 male, born in 2007:
GOLD: Francis Onyeka (SV Elversberg)
SILVER: Boris Mamuzah Lum (Hertha Berlin)
BRONZE: Mick Schmetgens (Werder Bremen)
U-19 female, born 2007:
GOLD: Maj Schneider (SC Freiburg)
SILVER: Janne Krumme (Eintracht Frankfurt)
BRONZE: Felicia Sträßer (Werder Bremen)
U-17 male, born in 2009:
GOLD: Kennet Eichhorn (Bayer Leverkusen)
SILVER: Cassiano Kiala (Bayern Munich)
BRONZE: Louis Lemke (Hamburger SV)
U-19 female, born 2009:
GOLD: Mirja Kropp (RB Leipzig)
SILVER: Johanna Hebben (SC Freiburg)
BRONZE: Marie Kleemann (RB Leipzig)
Of course, the list is far from a definitive ranking of these talents. For pity’s sake, Lennart Karl won just the silver medal last season, finishing behind Alexander Staff. The striker is a great talent and doing very well for his age, but he is currently playing in the third division of German football. While Karl is playing regular minutes for Bayern.
Still, these lists tend to do a good job of capturing where a player is in this moment of time and the potential they have to grow. For 20 years now, this award has been taken quite seriously in Germany. So it is good to see another Bayern talent win a medal and get acknowledged for their talent.
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