Where are all the super talents?
Germany has enviable infrastructure, clubs in every region, lots of coaches, plenty of youth leagues, and lots of training centres that are properly equipped. The German Football Association (DFB) has a good eight million members, the Bundesliga is one of the strongest leagues in the world economically, and the stadiums are full, right the way down to regional league level. Thanks to its population, Germany has talented players in every age group.
Consider Lennart Karl; the 18-year-old is a super talent.
In the first half of the season, when Jamal Musiala was injured, he was given a chance to prove himself. The setting around him was good, the team was solid: Luis Diaz on the left, Michael Olise on the right, Harry Kane at No 9, with Aleksandar Pavlovic and Joshua Kimmich behind him.
Karl was mainly used in the No 10 position, initially as a substitute, where he quickly benefited the team whenever introduced. Vincent Kompany soon put him in the starting line-up. He profited from his clearly defined role, from the exposure to senior football, and from being allowed to develop chemistry with his team-mates.
His range of skills meant he immediately passed the eye test: he has quick changes of pace, balance, agile dribbling thanks to a low centre of gravity, good first touches and initial movements, and a powerful shot. He has a carefree attitude that sometimes turns into arrogance, but that can be helpful. Karl acquired importance at a top club at a young age, which should benefit him throughout his career, and there’s the real prospect of him becoming something truly special.
But why doesn’t this happen more often in German football, given the advantages the country has and offers?
A lot is lost, especially in the transition from youth to professional football. Clubs invest millions in their academies and train seven days a week, but give their talented players little to no playing time. The path to the top is not professionally supported. And there is a general lack of a clear approach. As a result, a lot of potential goes untapped.
Success in football comes when young players are trained in a system over many years. This requires a consistent approach from the under-14s to the under-19s, basic rules, and uniform training methods. It requires clubs not only to support their youth players but also to provide them with educational care.
There must be experts to identify the two or three special players at each age group. During a player’s education, a coach must be able to recognise when to intervene in sessions and know how to explain technical disciplines and show players where space exists, but they must also allow mistakes to be made.
Lennart Karl, Bayern Munich’s talented teenager (Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
And the boys must also play. Talent develops in competition. Openness should therefore become mandatory. I would like to see every Bundesliga club set targets for the playing time of young homegrown players. A professional squad should not be larger than 23 players, and at least three places should be reserved for homegrown talent. This gives everyone the feeling of being needed. It also increases the responsibility of the sporting management. This means they need to make transparent decisions. Every year, three players should be tested to see if they can contribute to success. If no one ever does, a youth academy is pointless.
I am grateful to have experienced much of this myself. I was trained in the Bayern junior team under the clear principles of our training manager, Bjorn Andersson. The formation, the style of play, the positions and the team-mates; there was enormous value to the continuity we had and the chemistry we built from a young age. From the under-16s onwards, there were also clear positions for everyone, with a maximum of two roles per player — it meant we really became specialists.
My time in the junior team was between 1995 and 2003. Everyone in Germany knows the names of the other graduates from that period: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Markus Feulner, Zvjezdan Misimovic, Owen Hargreaves, Piotr Trochowski, Thomas Muller, Michael Rensing, Andreas Ottl, Christian Lell, Georg Niedermayer, and Mats Hummels.
From the under-16s onwards, the club imposed internal restrictions on how many young players from outside Munich and Bavaria it would bring into the squad. This reduced turnover and rotation from one age group to the next, allowing all players plenty of time to develop.
Without exception, they became Bundesliga professionals, even though not all of them had outstanding talent. Even as teenagers, they were easily identifiable. Every club knew what it was getting from one of those players. Bayern won the German championship twice with the under-17s and three times with the under-19s. Such a level of success has never been managed again — the history of that junior team is unique in Germany. I draw a lot from my experience in the junior team, such as the principles I apply now in my consulting work at Stuttgart; it had a profound influence on me.
If I were to change something in German football, I would introduce a binding training concept everywhere that would remain in place regardless of changes in coaching staff. It would define the rules under which youth teams play, the roles that exist, and the technical and tactical requirements that apply. In addition, I would like to see more experienced coaches who remain in their roles for longer.
There are undoubtedly many young, well-trained coaches in Germany who are committed to their work, but they change jobs or clubs too often, mostly because they are pushing to get to the next level. A 15-year-old player needs continuity, though. He needs people who stay and support him through difficult phases.
This ultimately leads me to a topic that German football has been grappling with for some time: why is it no longer producing as many specialists as it used to? There are hardly any natural centre-forwards like Gerd Muller, Rudi Voller, Miroslav Klose, or centre-backs like Jurgen Kohler and Karlheinz Forster.
Academies are failing to answer one crucial question: what are we training for? What is our approach? While countries such as Spain and clubs such as Barcelona train their young players for years using the same system, with the same positional requirements and following the same procedures, Germany jumps from trend to trend. Possession, transition, street football, and positional play — all are important, but without a consistent approach, they lose their effectiveness.
In the end, everyone can do a little bit of everything, but few have mastered anything properly. The focus everywhere is on flexible players. But a footballer doesn’t have to be good at everything. They have to be very good at something. Unfortunately, defending, for example, is hardly ever taught in detail anymore: body position, timing, aerial duels, penalty area defence. The old craft is also missing in attack: running to the near post, working against robust defences, repeating the same movements until they become second nature.
That’s why I would like to see German football develop a common playing philosophy again at association level: ball-oriented, organised, clear, with a balance between attack and defence. If it implements such a philosophy from top to bottom, specialists will emerge again. Then Germany will get its holding midfielder who knows what he has to do in the centre. A centre-back who will be difficult to beat. A striker who scores lots of goals in the penalty area.
Then German football would make better use of its talent pool again.