Lennart Karl is a standout player for Bayern Munich in the 2025/2026 season, having been promoted from the Bayern Munich U19 team last year.
The 17-year-old midfielder has played 22 games and scored 8 goals, becoming one of Bayern’s best players this season, with a Transfermarkt market value of €20m.
He primarily plays as an attacking midfielder, though he has also played as a right winger.
Among U21 players, Lennart Karl has the most key passes per 90 minutes in the top five European leagues and has now scored four goals in his last five starts for Bayern across all competitions.
He is also the youngest player in Champions League history to score in three consecutive games.
In this Lennart Karl scout report, we will take a look at how Lennart Karl fits into Vincent Kompany’s tactics and the role he is playing to help this Bayern team push for the Champions League this year.
We will look at how he helps build-up play, how he looks for key passes, his role in attack, the dribbling that makes him stand out, and whether he can be Bayern’s Thomas Müller successor.
Lennart Karl Positioning & Build-Up Play
Although Lennart Karl is an attacking midfielder, his intelligence at such a young age gives him the freedom to drop into areas usually occupied by a No. 6 and help with the team’s build-up.
What stands out is his confidence when he drops back to support the team; he does not shy away but instead demands the ball to try to progress it forward.
You can see where the opposition’s attacking press line is marked in red and how he positions himself in front of them, looking for the gaps in between.
This shows not only that Kompany believes in his technical ability to take on this role, but also highlights his calmness and intelligence.
Bayern Munich love their triangle positioning in the wide zones so they can make quick passes and try to get in behind, and Karl is a very fast-thinking player whose positioning is very good for his age.
He plays in the gap and waits for Michael Olise to pass him the ball; once he receives it, Olise can make a run in behind, and Karl can lay it back into his path.
Due to his relatively small stature at 1.68 m, he is not an attacking midfielder who will be in the box often when the team looks to switch play from the wide zones and deliver crosses inside.
Instead, he can take up positions just outside the box and look to swing in those crosses.
This makes Bayern Munich very dangerous, because not only can Joshua Kimmich deliver his beautiful crosses into the box, but Karl can now provide them from the other side of the pitch as well.
Bayern can use this dual threat to become more dangerous in the air and more effective at penetrating the box through aerial duels.
Because of his smaller size and his centre of gravity being lower than most senior players’, Lennart Karl can change direction very quickly and has more fluidity.
I am not comparing him to Lionel Messi, but the way he manipulates his knees and shoulder feints is very similar to the Argentine player.
The drop of the shoulder, the feint with his left leg, then taking the dribble to his right into open space.
His dribbling is one of his best characteristics.
You can see from this clip just how talented a dribbler he is, playing a touch that separates the ball from him but places it behind the opponent.
Then he takes a stride forward and then cuts the ball across his body and the opponent’s leg before laying it off to his teammate.
In tight spaces, the opponents struggle to catch him because he is constantly looking to change direction and speed if they get close.
— Footie Clips (@FootieClips) December 15, 2025
Lennart Karl Ball Striking
A common theme emerging from the new generation of players in the sport is that ball-striking is getting better and better.
Newer players emerging at the top level are entering senior competitions with clean ball-striking.
In contrast, in the past, it was rarer for non-attacking players to be this good at shooting.
Choosing to shoot from this position is quite ambitious, but the sheer power of the strike shows why he would consider taking a shot like this.
Lennart Karl Passing Ability
Passing has two sides to a coin.
One side is the intelligence to play a pass, and this intelligence covers vision, weight, and speed.
The other side of the coin is the technical ability to execute the pass.
One thing is certain, he has both sides of this coin.
Beyond that, he also has the confidence to keep trying ambitious passes, even if an earlier one did not go as planned or was not successful.
He never gives up because of a poor attempt.
In the image below, he spots a very tight angle in behind and a possible run from a teammate in white and plays the pass.
Even though the teammate’s run was a second behind the ball, he will continue attempt this type of pass.
Not every 17-year-old would have the guts to play so many long balls, but for him, it is not a concern, as he is constantly looking for his teammates’ runs in behind.
A team like Bayern Munich loves to have fast wingers; they are a side that has always relied on great pace out wide to make runs in behind.
That is why it has always been important for them to have a strong midfielder capable of playing passes to those fast-paced wingers, and Karl looks to be a great fit for this style.
Conclusion
Lennart Karl is a great breakout player for Bayern Munich and the German national team.
Most academy talents who break into the first team tend to stay for a long time, and he will likely spend many years at the club, potentially even a lifetime, like past German players who joined Bayern Munich.
When you are at a top club and fit in well, there is often no need to leave.
Although he currently relies more on his attacking skills, as an attacking midfielder who also plays some games on the right wing, he has shown the calmness, technical ability, and football IQ to play deeper and help build play in the No. 6 and No. 8 zones.
There is no doubt he will grow into a well-rounded player, but for now, his attacking abilities are shining at the top level.
There is a strong chance that if he keeps up this amazing form, he will be called up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and become a key player for a team that has failed to advance past the group stage in the past two World Cups in 2018 and 2022.
