FC Bayern is currently experiencing the meteoric rise of a talent who has marched from the campus to the starting eleven in just a few months. Lennart Karl has surprised the German record champions with his development – and sporting director Max Eberl is now openly saying that the 17-year-old is no longer an ordinary young player.
It wasn’t so long ago that Lennart Karl was playing for the U17s, almost skipped parts of the U19s and was suddenly training regularly with the professionals. But the speed at which the youngster has adapted to the first team level is extraordinary, even for experienced Bayern managers.
Max Eberl made it clear in the DAZN interview before the 3-1 defeat at Arsenal how impressed the club is with Karl’s development. The sporting director explained that they had believed in his potential early on, but nobody could have guessed the speed of this development. „Nobody could really expect that,“ Eberl said of Karl, emphasizing how strong the attacking player’s performances have been recently.
From talent to difference maker
The observations speak for themselves: Karl not only impresses with pace and courage in one-on-one situations, but also with game intelligence, body language and a remarkable naturalness in finishing. He was a decisive factor in the Bundesliga game against Freiburg, as Eberl emphasised. „In the game at the weekend, he was one of the players who turned the game around a bit,“ explained the sporting director, underlining that Karl is now more than just a talent who collects minutes. „He is more than just an alternative at the moment,“ he added, leaving no doubt that Karl is playing an increasingly important role in the Munich squad.
Against Arsenal, Karl was one of Bayern’s best players and scored the equalizer to make it 1:1. With his second goal of the current CL season, the youngster has made history in the premier class.
A new figurehead for the Bayern campus
It is no secret that FC Bayern worked hard to sign Florian Wirtz in the summer, but Karl’s breakthrough adds a new dimension to the squad planning. Eberl stressed that these are two separate issues and are being considered independently of each other. At the same time, it was clear how pleased the club is to have brought in a player from its own youth ranks who can already have a decisive influence on a Champions League match.
Karl shows that the Bayern campus can certainly live up to its claim of regularly producing professionals. The U21 international is one of the strongest examples of how much the German record champions rely on permeability and how talented the generation currently being trained is. His development is not only a sporting gain, but also a signal to all young players at the club.
