Thursday, 2 April 2020

Karim Adeyemi: From Bayern Munich rejection to Salzburg sensation

The 18-year-old had to overcome a number of obstacles as a young man but now looks set for a career at the very top of the game
Teenage footballers deal with rejection in different ways. Being cast aside by the club you have dreamed of representing can be tough at any age, but particularly for those who are perhaps too young to fully understand why.

The majority of those youngsters eventually slip out of the game completely, playing only in their leisure time.

Others are able to make professional careers for themselves, albeit at a lower level than they may have hoped for.

The tiny few, however, are able to deal with such disappointment and channel it as such that they can go onto fulfil their potential elsewhere, becoming a household name the world over in the process.
 


For Karim Adeyemi, the signs are that he will follow the third path, with the German forward recovering from release by Bayern Munich to become one of the brightest prospects in European football.

The 18-year-old - who earlier this week was named as one of the top 50 teenage footballers on the planet in Goal's annual NxGn list - is currently plying his trade at Red Bull Salzburg and is being tipped to follow in the footsteps of Erling Haaland and use the Austrian giants as a stepping stone to one of the continent's biggest clubs.

Barcelona, Liverpool and Arsenal have all already been credited with interest despite Adeyemi only making his senior debut for Salzburg in February, having spent the first half of the season on loan with FC Liefering in the Austrian second division, and the likelihood of him one day coming up against Bayern at the highest level grows with every eye-catching performance he puts in.

It is all a far cry away from his humble beginnings at local club Forstenried, though he would not be there long once the reigning Bundesliga champions got him in their sights.

"The football boots and equipment in general that I had at the beginning were not that great," he tells Goal of his time at Forstenried. "We didn't play on the grass either, but on the red earth or on the rubber court. But these were not in the foreground for me at the time - the most important thing was to get to know the boys and play together.

"In winter we often had small indoor tournaments where I could show myself, and Bayern scouts were present. They contacted my parents and offered me a trial. Since I'm from Munich and Bayern is the best club in the city, it used to be my favourite club, I was really happy to get the chance to play with the best young players in Munich. My idol has always been Arjen Robben. The way he went one-on-one and his precise shots on goal impressed me.




GOAL

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