This guest post was written by Zach Lowy, Chief Editor and Social Media Manager of BreakingTheLines.com. Zach is a successful journalist and can be followed at @ZachLowy on X and @zachlowy.bsky.social
on Bluesky. Zach’s work can also be found on FotMob, BetUS and others.
From Franz Beckenbauer to Philipp Lahm, from Sepp Maier to Bastian Schweinsteiger, we’ve seen quite a few players go from developing in the Bayern Munich academy to staking their status as club legends. However, prior to this season, we hadn’t seen a single player go from ascending the youth ranks to excelling at the senior level for Bayern since a certain Thomas Müller broke onto the scene in 2008.
Müller departed in the summer following a legendary quarter-century with the Bavarian giants, which, combined with the departures of Kingsley Coman and Leroy Sané, the long-term injury to Jamal Musiala, and the sales of Paul Wanner and Mathys Tel for lucrative transfer fees, led many Bayern fans to believe that they were due an attacking shopping spree. This proved to be far from the case, with Luis Díaz’s €70m arrival from Liverpool being Bayern’s sole attacking transfer, apart from Nicolas Jackson joining from Chelsea for a loan fee of €16.5m. Instead of splurging the big bucks on another forward, Bayern decided to bet on a homegrown player – Lennart Karl – making the jump to the senior ranks and emerging as their ‘new signing’ under Vincent Kompany. Fast-forward four months, and it’s clear to see that they’ve made the right call.
Born in Frammersbach, Germany, on February 22, 2008, Karl started off with Viktoria Aschaffenburg and Eintracht Frankfurt before joining Bayern Munich in 2022, where, after a sensational 2024/25 season that saw him rack up 34 goals and 11 assists in 30 appearances for Bayern’s U17s and U19s in 2024/25, he made his senior debut in Cincinnati. Karl played 45 minutes in Bayern’s 10-0 win vs. Auckland City in their FIFA Club World Cup opener, but he would have to wait another two months before his next appearance. After a momentous August that saw him sign a professional contract through 2028, win his first senior trophy after coming on in the final seconds of their DFL-Supercup win at Stuttgart, and debut in the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, Karl registered his first assist in a 4-1 win at Hoffenheim on September 20.
October was even better for Karl, who scored in back-to-back matches vs. Club Brugge and Borussia Monchengladbach, becoming one of the only players in Bundesliga history to win the Goal of the Month award with his maiden league goal. It wasn’t long before Karl started receiving worldwide acclaim from the game’s leading voices like Derek Rae, Stephen Constantine, and Raphael Honigstein as one of the best young talents in German football. Karl proved vital in plugging Bayern’s attacking shortfall and helping them get off to the best-ever start to a season in Europe’s top five leagues and breaking Milan’s 33-year record. Whilst Bayern’s sensational start came to an end after 16 straight victories with a 2-2 draw at Union Berlin on November 8, Karl refused to wallow in misery. Instead, he’s merely taken things up a notch.
After bagging a brace against Malta’s U-21 side and a goal vs. Georgia’s U-21s, Karl returned from the international break with a goal and an assist in a 6-2 win vs. Freiburg before evening the score in a 3-1 loss at Arsenal and becoming the youngest player to score in his first two UEFA Champions League starts, before starting in his next two vs. St. Pauli and Union Berlin. But rather than starting in his fifth match in a row at Stuttgart, Kompany opted to bring Karl on for Raphael Guerreiro at the hour-mark, with Bayern leading 1-0 – they would go on to win 5-0, remaining eight points clear in first place ahead of RB Leipzig.
Kompany opted to give Karl a much-needed rest in order to prepare him for another start in Europe’s premier competition, and his intuition was proven right. After falling behind in the 54th minute via an own goal, Bayern levelled proceedings in the 65th minute before grabbing the lead shortly after Karl cushioned the ball onto his left foot before showing remarkable composure to blast the goal past Rui Silva. For the second time on the night, Karl had put the ball into the back of the net, only this time, it actually counted. Jonathan Tah would put the game to bed in the 77th minute, securing Bayern’s fourth straight win. As for Karl, he became the youngest player to score in three straight Champions League matches.
At 17 years of age, Lennart Karl has the chance to do something that only a handful of players like Phil Foden, Guillermo Amor, Sergio Busquets, and Nacho Fernandez have done: win the UEFA Champions League with his boyhood club. Bayern sit second in the UEFA Champions League standings, three points behind Arsenal, two above PSG, Manchester City and Atalanta, and they’ll be counting on Karl to continuing his stellar form as they seek a seventh UEFA Champions League title.
He doesn’t turn 18 for another four months, and he hasn’t even been playing senior football for seven months, but Lennart Karl is already staking his claim as one of the biggest talents in the entire game, and if he can continue banging in the goals, then Julian Nagelsmann will have no other choice but to select him for the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
This guest post was written by Zach Lowy, Chief Editor and Social Media Manager of BreakingTheLines.com. Zach is a successful journalist and can be followed at @ZachLowy on X and @zachlowy.bsky.social on Bluesky. Zach’s work can also be found on FotMob, BetUS and others.
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