Jonas Urbig, Lucas Chevalier & Joan García Scouting Report 2024/2025 – Why Europe’s Giants Want These U23 GKs

Plenty of eyes have turned to Germany U21 international and FC Köln academy product Jonas Urbig following his €7m move to Bundesliga giants FC Bayern.

On his arrival at Bayern, Urbig has been coined the ‘heir apparent’ to Manuel Neuer, while the 21-year-old was drawing comparisons to Barcelona’s Marc-André Ter Stegen before his move to the Bavarian giants was made official.

This scouting report aims to cut through the hype and provide a more detailed analysis of the player’s key strengths, which is what has drawn Vincent Kompany’s side to his signing.

Furthermore, our analysis will also shed light on weaknesses in Urbig’s game, which are worth considering when evaluating his player profile.

This player analysis piece includes profiles on two more of Europe’s best U23 goalkeepers at the moment—Lucas Chevalier of Ligue 1s Lille and Joan Garcia of La Liga’s Espanyol.

According to FBRef, only five U23 goalkeepers in Europe’s top five leagues with at least seven 90s this term have a positive ‘post-shot xG minus goals per 90’.

This statistic indicates that these five players essentially have either had above-average luck or above-average shot-stopping performances this season, with ‘post-shot xG’ measuring how likely the goalkeeper is to save that particular shot.

Of those five players, the aforementioned duo stands out in particular for their shot-stopping performances, ability to claim crosses, and ball skills.

Chevalier has been linked to PSG, along with a host of Europe’s elite sides of late, with Les Parisiens rumoured to be considering parting ways with Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Meanwhile, Garcia has arguably been the all-round best performing young GK in Europe’s top-five leagues this term, with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal said to be keeping a close eye on the future Spain international.

Our scouting report will provide some analysis of all three goalkeepers and evaluate their quality.

Jonas Urbig Scouting Report At Bayern Munich 2024/25 

Let’s start off with our analysis of the new FC Bayern ‘keeper, Jonas Urbig (189cm/6’2”, 83kg/182lbs).

Thus far, Urbig has played at the lowest level of the three ‘keepers we’re analysing in this scout report, but he’s obviously made an excellent impression in his games thus far to earn his move to Bayern Munich.

Urbigs highest level of performance thus far is 2. Bundesliga, Germany’s second tier, where he’s made 60 appearances across three seasons and three different clubs.

Köln loaned him to Jahn Regensburg for half a season in 2022/23 and Greuther Fürth for the entire 2023/24 campaign.

While playing 10 games for Köln in the 2. Bundesliga this term, Urbig is not in great form from a shot-stopping perspective at the moment.

Having faced 16.8 xG this season, Urbig has conceded 2.2 goals more than expected between the sticks for Köln.

However, if we look at his career in general, Urbig has overperformed expectations throughout his 2. Bundesliga career, preventing 6.38 more goals than expected based on the quality of shots he faced.

The 21-y