Kenan Yildiz is one of the most promising talents that FC Bayern has developed in recent years but lost before he could make his breakthrough with the first team. The Regensburg native played for the Munich club for eleven years before leaving on a free transfer to Juventus Turin in 2022 at the age of 17.
At Juventus, Yildiz’s career then took off rapidly. The attacking player made the leap to the first team and established himself both at Juventus and on the Turkish national team. The 21-year-old is now even being linked to top international clubs like Real Madrid.
However, the fact that Bayern couldn’t keep Yildiz back then had less to do with a misjudgment of his talent than with a lack of prospects on the senior team. Campus director Jochen Sauer has now explained how his departure came about.
Bayern could not guarantee Yildiz a future
“Back then, we had other very talented players in his age group besides him, such as Paul Wanner and Arijon Ibrahimovic,” Sauer explained in an interview with SPOX.
The problem: From the perspective of those in charge at the time, it wasn’t possible to integrate all three talents into the professional team simultaneously.
“The professional squad at the time wouldn’t allow three 17-year-old offensive players to train with them simultaneously. In addition, Mathys Tel’s transfer was already on the horizon—he, too, was born in 2005,” Sauer explained.
Juventus, on the other hand, made Yildiz an offer that was particularly appealing to the youngster from a sporting perspective: “Juve promised Yildiz a permanent spot in professional training; we couldn’t do that at the time. That’s why he made the right decision for himself.”
In retrospect, this statement is quite remarkable. While Yildiz made his breakthrough in Turin, the other Bayern talents from that era were unable to establish themselves in Munich in the long term. After several loan spells, Wanner moved to PSV Eindhoven, and Ibrahimovic is currently on loan to FC Augsburg. Tel also left the record-holding champions later to join Tottenham.
Yildiz and Stiller prompted a change in thinking at FC Bayern
For Bayern, losing Yildiz on a free transfer was not without consequences. According to Sauer, this, combined with the Angelo Stiller situation, led to a reevaluation of the integration between the youth academy and the first team.
Stiller had already left FCB on a free transfer for Hoffenheim in 2021 and later went on to become a German national team player.
“When Kenan Yildiz moved to Juventus Turin a year after Angelo and established himself with the pros there, it was further confirmation that an FC Bayern U19 player can very quickly make an impact at a top international club,” Sauer explained.
For club officials, the lesson was clear: “Stiller and Yildiz certainly helped us focus more on the transition. After all, there’s no point in investing a lot of effort into developing players only to fail to benefit from them, either athletically or financially.”
In the meantime, the flow of players from the youth system to the first team has increased significantly. With Aleksandar Pavlovic and Lennart Karl, two Campus players have established themselves on the first-team roster. Under Vincent Kompany, numerous other young talents also got their chance.
In retrospect, Yildiz’s departure on a free transfer remains painful from Bayern’s perspective. At the same time, it appears to have played a decisive role in prompting Munich to change its youth development strategy—to ensure that such a situation does not happen again, if at all possible.