Bundesliga
Bayern Campus bearing first-team fruit
As Germany’s biggest club, Bayern Munich have a long history of producing world-class players who have gone on to shape domestic and international football. Alexander Pavlović, Arijon Ibrahimović and Josip Stanišić are the latest to come through the Bayern Campus.
When Bayern lost to Chelsea in the 2012 UEFA Champions League final, five academy graduates started the game for the Bavarians. A year later, four of their own lifted Europe’s premier club competition at Wembley stadium as Bayern overcame Borussia Dortmund. They were the latest homegrown stars to write their names into the club’s history, just as Sepp Maier, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller had done when registering three consecutive European Cup triumphs in the 1970s.
For many years, though, bringing fresh talent through proved to be a struggle. David Alaba is widely recognised as the last academy graduate to become a mainstay with the seniors. While others did feature for the senior side after moving through the youth levels, they were unable to beat off the intense competition for places.
Over the past 18 months or so, however, things have taken a dramatic turn. Last term, Pavlović broke into Thomas Tuchel’s plans, making 22 appearances in all competitions and forcing his way into the senior Germany national team. He's kicked on one further this season and is a first-team regular, while only injuries have stopped Ibrahimović and Stanišić - who helped Bayer Leverkusen win their maiden Meisterschale last term - from making a similar impact under Vincent Kompany.
Watch: The best of Aleksandar Pavlović
Then there's Frans Krätzig and Paul Wanner who have made loans to VfB Stuttgart and Heidenheim, respectively, in order to further their development with regular top-flight minutes, much like Stanišić did to such great effect last year.
Pavlović, Ibrahimović and Stanišić are just three of eight academy alumni who have been named in the club’s UEFA Champions League squad for the 2024/25 campaign. Although Pavlović was the only to feature in Bayern’s 9-2 hammering of Dinamo Zagreb, goalkeeper Max Schmitt was amongst the substitutes and, should Der Rekordmeister secure early progression to the next stage, others may pick up minutes.
It seems that the investment in their new academy centre is paying off. Former president Uli Hoeneß was one of the driving forces behind the venture, which was announced in 2013 and built between 2015 and 2017. Hoeneß was eager to underline how crucial producing talent themselves could be and his analysis of the situation in 2017 typically pulled no puches.
“In recent years the results of our work have not been good," he said. "No player has made it to the first team since Alaba. The new FC Bayern Campus will also provide an answer to the current transfer madness and the explosion in salaries.”
Watch: David Alaba - the Bayern youth product turned global star
“We are pleased that the campus is in place and that we can benefit from these great conditions. Now we want to do our job and develop players who could be considered for the professional squad in the near future. I am very impressed by the collaboration and the atmosphere on campus. There is a common goal that is at the forefront. That means developing players. The right direction has been taken.”
The Campus is truly all-encompassing. Starting from U9 level and ending at U19, a whole host of players have access to state-of-the-art facilities as well as a mini-Allianz Arena, which can hold a 2,500 capacity crowd and has hosted DFB Cup and UEFA Youth League games as well as U17 and U19 Bundesliga fixtures.
There are also numerous apartments available for players who come outside the Munich area and a hexagonal half-size pitch was introduced in 2019 to allow youngsters to jump into game situations courtesy of video projectors.
The main objective, of course, is to produce players for the head coach to utilise in the search for silverware. Additionally, though, the Campus could prove to contribute an extra source of revenue. For example, Joshua Zirkzee’s moves to Bologna and Manchester United have rewarded Bayern financially for their efforts in developing the player at their academy, so too did Malik Tillman’s switch to PSV Eindhoven.
Ultimately, that is further proof of the Campus’ potential. How long it takes to reproduce a core including the likes of Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and Bastian Schweinsteiger remains to be seen. Considering the vast array of talent now emerging from the Bayern Campus, that dream looks closer to becoming reality each day.