“We couldn’t do that at that point!” How Bayern Munich lost one of their biggest talents on a free transfer and learned the right lessons

Kenan Yildiz came through Bayern Munich’s academy, but he developed into a top player at Juventus: youth chief Jochen Sauer has now revealed the background to the departure of the former top talent.

Kenan Yildiz spent 11 years in Bayern Munich's youth system before joining Juventus on a free transfer in 2022 at the age of 17. The Regensburg-born player then stepped up to the first team remarkably quickly and has since developed into a top player.

So why could the Munich club not keep the promising left winger? "At the time, in addition to him, we had other very talented players in the same age group such as Paul Wanner and Arijon Ibrahimovic," Sauer recalled in an interview with SPOX. "The first-team squad at the time did not allow for three 17-year-old attacking players to train with them at the same time. In addition, the transfer of Mathys Tel had already begun to take shape; he is also from the 2005 age group. Juve promised Yildiz a permanent place in first-team training, and we could not do that at that point. That is why he also made the right decision for himself."

Under Julian Nagelsmann, Wanner and Ibrahimovic both made their first-team debuts for Bayern Munich but neither managed the final breakthrough. After several loan spells, Wanner joined PSV Eindhoven in 2025 for €15 million. Ibrahimovic is already on his fourth loan spell and has been playing for Augsburg since the summer. Mathys Tel arrived from Stade Rennes in the summer of 2022, shortly after Yildiz left, for €20 million. After two and a half years as a squad player, he moved on to Tottenham Hotspur at the start of 2025.

Yildiz and Stiller prompted a rethink at Bayern Munich

Now sidelined with a broken foot, Yildiz is an undisputed regular for Juventus and the Turkey national team. Most recently, the 21-year-old was even linked with a move to Real Madrid. His market value has long since clearly surpassed that of Wanner, Ibrahimovic and Tel.

Sauer believes Yildiz's free-transfer exit from Bayern Munich and his breakthrough at Juventus at least had one positive side effect: it led the club to improve the pathway between youth level and the first team.

The issue had first come up when Angelo Stiller joined Hoffenheim on a free transfer in 2021. "When Kenan Yildiz moved to Juventus Turin a year after Angelo and established himself there with the first team, it was another confirmation that an FC Bayern U19 player can function very quickly at an international top club," Sauer explained. "Stiller and Yildiz certainly helped to ensure that we put better focus on the transition. After all, there is no point in developing players with great effort only then to benefit neither sporting-wise nor financially from it."

Since then, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Lennart Karl have made the permanent step up from the Munich Campus to the first team, while numerous other home-grown talents made their debuts last season under Vincent Kompany. Sauer joined Bayern Munich from RB Salzburg in 2017, when the Campus opened, as head of youth development. Since 2023, he has been director of development and at the same time managing director of Red&Gold Football, Bayern Munich's international club network.