Lennart Karl - The Boy's A Bit Special
Lennart Karl - The Boy's A Bit Special (Image credit: Future)
The Bayern Munich teenager is possibly Europe's standout young player of 2025/26, even if it is the German juggernaut bound for yet another Bundesliga title he's playing for.
If you'd watched, or even heard of him last season, you'd know it was practically impossible for Vincent Kompany to ignore him any longer.
He played 31 times for club and country, at Under-17, Under-19 and senior level, albeit only fleetingly with the latter, contributing to an enormous 45 goals. That meant he averaged a goal or assist every 53 minutes; more often than not it was the former, netting 34 times for Bayern and Germany's youth teams. He is an output machine already boasting elite technique.
Lennart Karl in hot water with Bayern teammates over Real Madrid comments
Lennart Karl of FC Bayern Muenchen celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD3 match between FC Bayern München and Club Brugge KV at Football Arena Munich on October 22, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
Lennart Karl of FC Bayern Muenchen celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD3 match between FC Bayern München and Club Brugge KV at Football Arena Munich on October 22, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
Karl's left foot is deadly. If he's receiving the ball between lines on the edge of the penalty area, it's already over for the opposition. It's almost as though he has the ball on a string - even when it appears a pass has been fired into him with too much vim, he manages to control and progress the play within a matter of seconds.
Dextrous, diminutive and devastating from that 20-yard range, Karl isn't going back to youth football and although he's yet to make his senior international debut, could even be a candidate for Julian Nagelsmann's Germany squad at the World Cup.
FourFourTwo's long-running 'The Boy's A Bit Special' feature has been going since the magazine's first issue, highlighting the best young players in the United Kingdom and abroad.
As of September 2025, we've given it a revamp. Our youth football expert Joe Donnohue will be profiling four teenagers each month, explaining why they're, well, a bit special.
He is such an energetic player, half-mirroring the style of former Bayern man Arjen Robben when cutting in off the right but equally as comfortable receiving under pressure in more central spaces.
The other side of Karl's game is as the archetypal 'raumdeuter', or 'space investigator' in directly-translated parlance, a bit like another former Bayern star, Thomas Müller - if only you'd put the World Cup winner through a hot wash and dry cycle.
Unlike that legendary pair, though, Karl is perhaps more of a fighter, a scrappier competitor, particularly in the final third, something which the aforementioned Robben and Müller rarely bothered themselves too much with.
It helps he is breaking through in a league like the Bundesliga, which is typically conducive to player development, but he's demonstrating his quality in the Champions League, too. This season, the 17-year-old became the youngest player in the competition's history to score in three consecutive matches.
If you thought Jamal Musiala looked good in the no.42 shirt for the Bundesliga's perennial champions, Karl is running him pretty close.
Harry Kane of FC Bayern Munich celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD7 match between FC Bayern München and R. Union Saint-Gilloise at Football Arena Munich on January 21, 2026 in Munich, Germany.
Karl is learning from the best at Bayern
That said, Karl did risk the wrath of his teammates and Bayern fans when he declared in a recent interview that his dream is to one day represent Real Madrid.
This season, the two teams are likely to reach the latter stages of the Champions League, which would leave Karl in a difficult spot given his previous comments.
DID YOU KNOW: Karl's agent is former Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Germany icon Michael Ballack.