Sami Khedira praises ‘healthy arrogance’ of Bayern Munich phenom Lennart Karl | OneFootball

In an interview for the Thursday print edition of Kicker, 2014 German World Cup winner Sami Khedira offered up an interesting take on young Bayern Munich phenom Lennart Karl. Khedira – since retiring from football at the end of the 2020/21 campaign – has been working as an administrator at his hometown Bundesliga club of VfB Stuttgart. The 77-times-capped German international spoke on views that the current state of German national team football is broken.

“I don’t think we’re currently in a position to replace two or three top players, Khedira said. “If [Nico] Schlotterbeck is missing, if [Jamal] Musiala is missing, then you’re already in trouble. As the German team, you have the ambition to become world champions. But first you have to qualify, do your homework, be down-to-earth and respect every opponent.“

Asked specifically about Bayern Munich’s prospects in the Bundesliga this season, Khedira noted that – despite the small squad size – the promise demonstrated by youngsters such as Karl and Wisdom Mike in pre-season likely left the German record champions in good shape. Khedira called Karl and Mike “two German talents incredibly good at football“. Bayern, Khedira noted, remained “untouchable at the national level“.

In a separate question about which young phenoms would eventually take the place of one-time exciting young talents Musiala and Florian Wirtz, Khedira went straight back to Karl. Khedira was obviously aware of some of Karl’s (still only 17-years-of-age) own public comments on his future with the German giants.

“Lennart Karl is the hottest prospect we have,” Khedira noted. “He has an incredible sense of fun on the pitch. He has a certain arrogance, but it’s a healthy arrogance. I just love that. These are players who know: I’m incredibly good, but I still respect the established professionals.“

GGFN | Peter Weis