In the 2024/25 season, 15-year-old goalkeeper Leonard Prescott lined up for Bayern Munich’s U-16s. In the 2025/26 season, the 16-year-old jumped up two levels to play for the U-19s, was called up to the first team multiple times and was nearly called upon to make his debut. Still a couple of months away from his 17th birthday, Prescott was promoted to the U-23s and started preseason under new head coach Dante.
Very, very few players rise this quickly up the ranks in the Bayern academy.
Which makes
it all the more unfortunate that Prescott’s U-23 debut went so wrong. Set to start the Bavarians’ first friendly of preseason, the American-German dual citizen pulled up short in the warmup to the match and had to be replaced by Leon Klanac.
It was not just a small injury, though. Soon after the match Prescott posted a picture of himself after a successful operation on Instagram:
A day later, Bayern officially revealed the diagnosis on their website:
Bitter news during preseason: Goalkeeper Leonard Prescott suffered a meniscus tear in his knee while warming up before the first friendly against Legia Warsaw (0-2 ) last Saturday. This is the result of a thorough examination by FC Bayern’s medical department. The 16-year-old German youth international has already undergone successful surgery and will now be sidelined for several months.
This is terrible news for the young goalkeeper, who has developed so much in the last years. Hopefully he can come back stronger.
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