Karl came through the youth ranks at, among others, Bayern Munich's Bundesliga rivals Eintracht Frankfurt before moving from Viktoria Aschaffenburg to FCB's academy in 2022. In the 2025/26 season, he stepped up into Vincent Kompany's senior squad and became a Germany international.
That rise came as little surprise to Gerland. He told the Abendzeitung: "I watched the boy play ten times, and ten times he was the best player on the pitch. If I only see a player once, I have to wait and see. But if I watch a young player with this talent ten times, then I know he is going to become something special. It was the same good feeling I quickly had with Erling Haaland."
Gerland has never hidden the fact he desperately wanted to bring the Norwegian to Munich. The Tiger recalled: "I was watching him back then with the Norway youth national team when they were playing against Germany, and I thought to myself: 'What's going on here? Who is this guy?'"
He made his recommendation in no uncertain terms: "I immediately called Bayern Munich and said: 'We have to sign him.'" At the time, Haaland was still playing for Molde FK and visited the FCB Campus a few days later. Gerland recalled: "The transfer fee would have been cheap, and he wanted to earn between €10,000 and €15,000 gross. But in the end Bayern Munich did not want to pay."
What swayed it, he said, was the competition for places in attack: "Some said: 'We have Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski up front. Where is he supposed to play?'"
Getty ImagesHaaland ended up at Red Bull Salzburg instead a few years later. He then moved to Borussia Dortmund before joining City in 2022 for a fee of €60 million. Munich tried to sign him then too, but could not match the Sky Blues' offer financially.