Joshua Kimmich: The new Bavarian
Bayern Munich added another promising youngster to their impressive roster of players when they signed the Germany U-21 midfielder recently. He has been acquired by Bayern Munich from Vfb Stuttgart. He is currently on loan from Stuttgart to RB Leipzig. The 20-year-old German has agreed to join the Bavarian giants in the summer of 2015 reportedly for a fee of €7 million. Pep Guardiola must have been confident of the youngster's capabilities as he has been offered a five-year deal.
Playing style
He is a precise passing and strong tackling midfielder. He offloads the ball quickly and is a tenacious tackler. He plays as a defensive midfielder and I see no reason why he will be assigned a different role in the Bayern Munich team ( in the distant future, of course ).He isn't a very tall player at 5’ 9” and needs to improve his aerial ability. He has a lot of pace and tracks back on counter-attacks well.
Performance so far
He has represented his country at all levels from under-15 to under-21 and was part of Germany's European Under-19 Championship winning side in Hungary last July. He was the anchor of the German U-19 side’s midfield in this past summer’s European Under-19 Championships. He started every match in the tournament except one, and proved to be an effective passer and stabilizing presence in the middle of the park.
He hasn't played for the Stuttgart senior team, but has made 13 appearances for Leipzig in the second tier so far in 2014/15. A number of Stuttgart fans have expressed their anger in the sale of Kimmich to another Bundesliga rival.
Kimmich has claimed that he has the mental strength required to prove his worth when he arrives at Bayern Munich in the summer.
"You've got to have self-confidence that you're going to make it at Bayern and I have that self-confidence.It's a great honour for me to be able to play for the record champions from the summer and I'm really looking forward to the challenge.Until then, though, there are six months and I'm going to give everything in this time to help Leipzig reach the objectives we've set." He said.
Reports suggest that the youngster had admirer in Pep and it was probably the Bayern manager who persuaded the Munich giants to buy Kimmich.
Have Bayern made the right choice? Only time can tell. Kimmich certainly has his task cut out. He needs to break into the Bayern first team as quickly as possible to quiet the people, who are criticising Bayern's decision to buy him, and have paid too much for him.
Here’s a look of Joshua Kimmich: