"Knows that he will become something special": Hermann Gerland is delighted by one Bayern Munich player
Bayern Munich’s former head of youth development Hermann Gerland (72) has raved about super talent Lennart Karl (18). In the process, he also explained why FCB once decided against signing current Man City goal-getter Erling Haaland (26).
Karl came through the youth ranks at, among others, Bayern Munich's Bundesliga rivals Eintracht Frankfurt before moving from Viktoria Aschaffenburg to FCB's academy in 2022. In the 2025/26 season, he stepped up into Vincent Kompany's senior squad and became a Germany international.
That rise came as little surprise to Gerland. He told the Abendzeitung: "I watched the boy play ten times, and ten times he was the best player on the pitch. If I only see a player once, I have to wait and see. But if I watch a young player with this talent ten times, then I know he is going to become something special. It was the same good feeling I quickly had with Erling Haaland."
Gerland has never hidden the fact he desperately wanted to bring the Norwegian to Munich. The Tiger recalled: "I was watching him back then with the Norway youth national team when they were playing against Germany, and I thought to myself: 'What's going on here? Who is this guy?'"
He made his recommendation in no uncertain terms: "I immediately called Bayern Munich and said: 'We have to sign him.'" At the time, Haaland was still playing for Molde FK and visited the FCB Campus a few days later. Gerland recalled: "The transfer fee would have been cheap, and he wanted to earn between €10,000 and €15,000 gross. But in the end Bayern Munich did not want to pay."
What swayed it, he said, was the competition for places in attack: "Some said: 'We have Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski up front. Where is he supposed to play?'"
Haaland ended up at Red Bull Salzburg instead a few years later. He then moved to Borussia Dortmund before joining City in 2022 for a fee of €60 million. Munich tried to sign him then too, but could not match the Sky Blues' offer financially.
