Bundesliga
5 surprise Bayern academy products
Bayern Munich have produced their fair share of homegrown talents over the years, from Bastian Schweinsteiger to Philipp Lahm and Thomas Müller, but there are numerous other players to have come through the club’s ranks before making it big elsewhere.
bundesliga.com takes a closer look at a select high-profile quintet…
1) Emre Can
Age: 26
Current club: Borussia Dortmund
At Bayern from: 2009-2013
Youth: Born and raised in Frankfurt, Can joined hometown club Eintracht at the age of 12 in 2006. Bayern’s scouting network soon picked him up though, and the midfielder moved to Munich in 2009 – the same year he made his debut for Germany’s U15 team.
He spent two years in the Bayern youth academy, during which time he also helped Germany finish third at the FIFA U17 World Cup in 2011, before going on to win the gold Fritz Walter medal later that year as the best player in his age group in the country.
Going pro: Standing at 6’0”, blessed with a fearless attitude and the pace and ability to surge forward from midfield, the 17-year-old was promoted to Bayern’s reserve side in 2011 and made his first-team debut in the Supercup in 2012.
His first Bundesliga outing followed that same season in April 2013, but as an 18-year-old competing with the likes of established senior internationals in Schweinsteiger, Javi Martinez and Luiz Gustavo, his first-team opportunities were limited.
That summer, having made just four Bundesliga appearances for Bayern, Can took the bold step of leaving for Bayer Leverkusen. It paid off. “I was able to put into practice everything I learned during my time at Bayern when I was working with players like Schweinsteiger, Martinez and Gustavo,” he told the Daily Mirror of the transfer. “You pick up little things every day. They made major contributions to developing my career.”
Watch: Can wins February Goal of the Month!
Now: He was only at the BayArena for one year before spending four years at Liverpool and 18 months in Italy with Juventus, ultimately returning to the Bundesliga with Dortmund in January 2020.
He has hit the ground running at the Signal Iduna Park, starting every Bundesliga game for BVB since Matchday 21 and scoring the February Goal of the Month winner with a stunning long-range strike against Leverkusen.
Mehmet Ekici
Age: 29
Current club: Fenerbahce
At Bayern from: 1997-2011
Youth: Born to Turkish parents in Munich in 1990, Ekici popped up on Bayern’s radar at the age of seven, and climbed up through the various age categories throughout the next decade. That in itself is quite the feat at a club that is notoriously rigorous in its player selection.
A skillful attacking midfielder, Ekici made his first appearance for the Bayern reserves at the age of 17 in 2007/08, before Jürgen Klinsmann gave him a maiden run-out with the first team in the Supercup against Dortmund in July 2008.
Going pro: On the fringes of the first team in his teens, Ekici became an established player in the reserves, but was included in the senior side’s 2009/10 winter training camp, ultimately signing professional terms with the club in February 2010.
However, with the likes of Müller, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Hamit Altintop blocking his path, Ekici never made a Bundesliga appearance for Bayern. He joined Nuremberg on loan for the 2010/11 season, before leaving on a permanent deal for Werder Bremen in 2011.
Now: Following four goals in 43 competitive appearances for Bremen, he moved to Turkey – who he opted to represent at international level. Three seasons at Trabzonspor were followed by a switch to Fenerbahce in 2017, and he remains at the record Turkish champions to this day.
Age: 26
Current club: Augsburg
At Bayern from: 2007-2010
Youth: Football very much runs in the blood for Max, whose father Martin laced his boots for Borussia Mönchengladbach and Schalke, among others, while his mother Sandra also played professionally. He joined 1860 Munich at the age of 10 in 2003 – the same year his dad left the club – but young Philipp remained in the youth academy for four years before city rivals Bayern snapped him up.
Max spent three years on Bayern’s books, and although he never made it into the first or second teams, he is still grateful for his time at the club. “With 1860 you’re always the underdog, but with Bayern you’re always under pressure to win, even at youth level. Being in Munich was an important time for me,” he told Tageszeitung in 2017.
Going pro: At the age of 17, Max left Bayern and moved with his family to the Ruhr district in 2010, joining Schalke’s famed Knappenschmiede academy. A relative late bloomer by today’s standards, he made his Bundesliga debut for the Royal Blues in March 2014 when he was 21, one of just two top-flight appearances he made for the club.
It wasn't until 2014/15 that Max truly made a name for himself though, having dropped down a division to Karlsruher in search of regular playing time. A season of consistent displays on the left flank was rewarded with a transfer to Augsburg the following campaign.
Now: Since then he has established a reputation as one of the Bundesliga’s best left-backs. A solid defender, Max comes to life when going forward and is one of the best dead-ball specialists in the Bundesliga. He set a new record in 2017/18 by laying on 13 assists – a single-season high for any defender in the league’s history.
Watch: All of Max's assists in 2017/18
Roberto Soriano
Age: 29
Current club: Bologna
At Bayern from: 2005-2009
Youth: Born to Italian parents in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, Soriano came to Bayern’s attention relatively late on for a youth player: in 2005, at the age of 14, he shone while playing for a Hessen state side. A couple of weeks later he was invited to Bayern’s Säbener Straße complex in Munich and agreed to join their academy, filling one of just 13 highly coveted spots in the club’s boarding facilities.
Playing in the same U19 side as Müller, Soriano was considered one of the brightest up-and-coming youngsters on the club’s books. However, he was impatient to make his breakthrough, and in 2009 decided his future lay elsewhere after receiving an offer from Italian team Sampdoria.
“I really wanted to make it at Bayern,” he told Spox.com following his move to the Serie A. “But the offer from Sampdoria was very attractive. In Munich I would still only have trained with the reserves every so often, but in Sampdoria I was given a professional contract right away and trained with Antonio Cassano and all the other top players.”
Going pro: It was a transfer that eventually paid off for the midfielder, following a loan move to second-division side Empoli in his first season in Italy.
By the time he left Sampdoria in 2016 he had made 139 competitive appearances for the club, scoring eight goals, while also becoming a full Italy international in 2014.
Now: Soriano moved to Villareal in 2016, but spent the 2018/19 season on loan at Torino before returning to Italy permanently for 2019/20 with Bologna.
Age: 22
Current club: Wolfsburg
At Bayern from: -2013
Youth: Pongracic was born in the Bavarian town of Landshut, approximately 50 miles to the north-east of Munich – and therefore very much in Bayern’s catchment area. He spent the majority of his youth career at the club, before moving to fellow Bavarian club Ingolstadt at the age of 16 in 2013.
Going pro: The centre-back was lured back to Munich by 1860 in 2016, and after a season with the reserves playing in Germany’s fourth division, he was given his professional debut by the Lions in Bundesliga 2 in April 2017.
Although he was unable to prevent 1860 being relegated at the end of that campaign, his impressive performances were enough to persuade Red Bull Salzburg to snap him up in summer 2017 – a transfer that was soon followed by a maiden call-up for the Croatia U21s.
There he worked under current Mönchengladbach boss Marco Rose and former RB Leipzig assistant coach Jesse Marsch, making 56 appearances in all competitions for Salzburg, including one in the UEFA Champions League and nine in the Europa League, while also helping the club to the Austrian league title in 2018 and a league and cup double the following year.
Now: After Wolfsburg qualified for the UEFA Europa League at the end of 2018/19, they were keen to bolster their squad to have the depth to compete on three fronts. Pongracic was the ideal candidate, according to sporting director Marcel Schäfer: “He’s quick and good at building play from the back [...] and has considerable experience at European level.”
Signed by the Wolves in January 2020, the no-nonsense defender was given his starting debut in the Bundesliga on Matchday 20, but was sent off just a week later. “I’m not going to turn into Mother Theresa overnight,” he said, “ but I do need to be a bit more careful.”