#lennart-karl

#lennart-karl

I'd say: believe in yourself. Of course, you need a family that's 100% behind you. My parents used to drive me to training, a 45-minute drive each way. You also need a solid circle of friends and shouldn't let yourself be talked into doing silly things like smoking. My friends are perfect; they always have my back.

The biggest differences are clearly the physicality and intensity; the training is much more strenuous than in youth football. I can't compare dribbling against a 17-year-old to dribbling against [Bayern teammate] Dayot Upamecano.

I was sometimes surprised at how everything turned out. But I always thought I could do it. So I persevered and worked hard. I'm very satisfied, but of course there's always room for improvement. Hopefully I can score more goals, provide more assists, and deliver even better performances.

That said, Lennart Karl has been scoring at a similar rate in his young Champions League career so far, with three goals in five outings. The 17-year-old attacker is now on the verge of another milestone: should he feature on Wednesday, it will be his sixth Champions League appearance before his 18th birthday. That would draw him level with Julian Draxler in this statistic, with only Youssoufa Moukoko having made more appearances in Europe's elite competition before turning 18 (eight).

Franck Ribery was a mercurial player who won everything at the club level with Bayern. An effortless dribbler with explosive acceleration who used his short frame to deceive and get past defenders, Ribery is the perfect footballer that Karl can learn from and polish his skills. Due to the similarities in their playstyle and frame, Karl is sometimes called Ribery's regen.

"It's simply the truth," Kimmich said when asked about Karl (via Sport1, translation by @iMiaSanMia). "If someone plays regularly for Bayern and consistently delivers good performances and is German, he belongs in the German national team in the long run - if he can confirm that over weeks and months."