If Maycon Cardozo truly broke into the first team, it would be an incredible shock. The current youngsters that are in and around the first team are players that came from the likes of Eintracht Frankfurt,
Borussia Mönchengladbach, Atlético Madrid, etc. Cardozo, however, came from the Sport-Thai Bavaria Academy in Thailand. As the name suggests, the academy is a partner of Bayern and it is a very good one. But players do not go from Thailand to Bayern to the first team. Do they?
The Brazilian himself had no ambition of signing for Bayern after signing for the STB academy, even after he joined the FC Bayern World Squad, essentially a promotional gimmick for the Bavarians. But Cardozo became the first World Squad player to sign a deal at Bayern, with all the coaches of the World Squad unanimously completely convinced of his quality. He signed in January 2025 then suffered a big injury that kept him out until the end of the season. But he worked his way back and has become a regular starter as part of the U-19s, recently scoring the winner in the U-19 Munich derby.
There are no obvious signs for an outside observer that Cardozo is close to making the first team squad. But Sky reporter Kerry Hau, as captured by @iMiaSanMia_GER, singled him out as someone nearing first team football for one very good reason:
Alongside Wisdom Mike and Cassiano Kiala, who are already regulars in the first team squad, Maycon Cardozo has recently been training more frequently with the first team. He is a similar profile of player to Lennart Karl, with a low center of gravity and good left foot.
Cardozo is, in fact, right footed. But his left foot is also quite good. The comparison to Karl is a rough one, but their mazy dribbling and close control is quite similar. Again, if Cardozo were to make the jump to the first team, his story would be a truly jaw dropping one.
