The Heidenheim-Bayern connection | OneFootball

Can Heidenheim's Bayern Munich-reared contingent cause an upset in the title race?

Bayern Munich travel to Heidenheim on Matchday 30 as the 2024/25 Bundesliga enters its final five rounds of fixtures. Three members of Heidenheim’s squad - Frans Krätzig, Paul Wanner, and Niklas Dorsch - have ties to the Bavarian giants. Can the Heidenheim trio come back to haunt the record champions and cause a late upset in the title race?

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You'd be forgiven for thinking that the script will largely have already been written ahead of league leaders Bayern's trip to 16th-placed Heidenheim. In what is sure to be another instalment of a David vs. Goliath match-up, Frank Schmidt's side may just have an ace in the hole - or three, to be exact. Bayern loanees Wanner, Krätzig and former Säbener Straße starlet Dorsch make up the Bayern contingent at the Voith-Arena and, using their knowledge of the record champions, the Baden-Württemberg side may just be able cause problems in Bayern's title push whilst collecting valuable points in their ongoing bid for Bundesliga safety: double bubble!

Wanner enjoyed a start of dreams to his loan spell at Heidenheim. In his first four competitive outings in 2024/25, the youngster grabbed the headlines for registering four goals and two assists, as Heidenheim enjoyed a 100 percent record across the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and UEFA Conference League. As the season has gone on, however, he has found it difficult to replicate his lightning-fast start, having scored just twice more in 36 appearances, last finding the net in a 3-1 home defeat to VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 14.

Already a two-time Bundesliga winner, as well as Bayern's youngest ever debutant in both the Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League, the records he has accumulated at the tender age of 19 are astonishing. The numbers give some indication as to what a special talent he is and although his momentum has slowed in the second half of the season for Heidenheim, his ability to find pockets of space, glide past defenders and deliver a killer ball in the final third make him a nightmare for defenders on his day.

If Wanner has stalled somewhat in the second half of the campaign, one man who has picked up the slack is Krätzig. A winter arrival, likwise on loan from Bayern, Krätzig exploded into life on his debut, scoring in a 2-0 home victory over Union Berlin on Matchday 16. After the game, Heidenheim boss Schmidt said of the Bayern loanee: "Frans immediately radiated that he wanted to play football, that he was positive, that he was 100 per cent committed to it and wanted to have fun with the team. We needed that."

Since his arrival, the youngster has featured in 12 of Heidenheim's 14 Bundesliga games, starting 11 of them, and although he hasn't scored since his debut, he has helped himself to two assists. A tireless runner both going forward and helping out at the back, and blessed with a laser-accurate left foot that seems purpose-built for crosses, Krätzig has been a key player for Heidenheim in 2025, and could prove to be the key to unlocking a Bayern defence that will arrive at the Voith-Arena in the midst of an injury crisis and in the wake of a Champions League quarter-final exit to Inter Milan.

Dorsch is something of an outlier on this list, as the only player to be owned outright by Heidenheim. His Bayern days are long gone, having risen through the ranks at the academy and reserves before breaking out into the first team in the 2017/18 campaign. He may have only made one professional appearance in a Bayern shirt, but it was a memorable one: Dorsch scored the opener in a 4-1 downing of Eintracht Frankfurt in April 2018. His time spent at Bayern did allow him to learn from the very best, however, with the midfielder once telling kicker magazine: "In a footballing sense, with regards to the position I play in, Thiago [Alcantara] was always a player I looked up to and tried to learn from."

His years away from the Allianz Arena have brought Dorsch invaluable experience, too. Currently enjoying his second spell at Heidenheim after rejoining from Augsburg last summer, having also plied his trade at the Voith-Arena between 2018 and 2020, the midfielder has amassed 77 appearances for Schmidt's side, grabbing five goals and 10 assists in all competitions. The metronome at the heart of Heidenheim's midfield and a leader within a youthful squad, Dorsch may well be able to orchestrate the title race upset Heidenheim fans will be desperate for, as they continue to fight for their Bundesliga survival against Bayern on Saturday.

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