Bayern Munich are always looking to sign Germany’s top young talents. The likes of Bastian Assomo, Cassiano Kiala, and Lennart Karl are just three examples of recent signings of the most highly rated talents in the country.
Berlin have been a favorite shopping area of Bayern’s for a while now, but the Bavarians snagged Karl from Eintracht Frankfurt. The central-western club has been known for making good young signings in recent years, but have majorly struggled to recruit such talent and provide
a proper pipeline for any academy youngsters to make an impact in the first team. That may have been one of the reasons Karl decided to leave, despite how Frankfurt appreciated his talent.
But their next top talent has put his faith in Frankfurt. Niko Iličević has gotten plaudits from all over as one of the most exciting talents, if not the best, in Germany. Naturally Bayern were very, very interested in the player, but the 15-year-old still decided to extend his deal at Frankfurt. We did not know how much Bayern tried to change the kid’s mind. According to a recent report by Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), however, the Bavarians did put in a concerted effort:
Bayern tried hard to sign Eintracht Frankfurt top talent Niko Iličević (15/attacking midfielder), just like they did with Lennart Karl in 2022. Barcelona were also interested. However, Frankfurt did everything in their power to keep Iličević and managed to tie him down to a new contract, which becomes professional on his 18th birthday. The youngster could already make his Bundesliga debut as soon as he turns 16. Even Jürgen Klopp has taken notice of Iličević.
Of course, this does not mean Bayern will not sign him eventually. Tom Bischof notably rejected multiple advances from Bayern before eventually joining the Bavarian giants once he felt he was ready. Bayern will renew their interest further down the road, so we will see how that goes.
On a different note, it is nice to see one of the clubs in Germany most dedicated to developing young talent start to turn that attention to their academy. German football can only benefit from clubs putting more emphasis on their academies. It’s not great that the biggest club in Germany, Bayern, is having to show the way when there are many clubs in the country whose entire philosophy is to develop young talent. Keeping Iličević and showing him a good perspective is, at the very least, a good first step for Frankfurt.
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