A year has passed since Lennart Karl broke through at Bayern Munich. Against Club Brugge, he scored his first-ever goal for the Munich first team and became the youngest German goalscorer in Champions League history. It was a beauty, too: a superb dribble followed by a precise shot into the top right corner. Bayern Munich fans voted it goal of the month for October.
That goal put the right winger, then just 17, in headlines across Europe. The hype soon took a curious turn. English television pundit Micah Richards recited a poem he had written about Karl live on air: "Young Karl Lennart, with the poise of a sage, plays well beyond his age. With flair and fire he lifts Bayern higher. A star lighting up the stage, bursting on the scene. He's definitely on the right page."
Karl then scored in his subsequent Champions League appearances against Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon, replacing Kylian Mbappe as the youngest player to score in three consecutive Champions League matches. He played with a wonderful lightness that autumn of 2025. That lightness has long since gone. In the Champions League, the competition where he first stepped into the spotlight, Karl has now endured the low point of his professional career so far.
Against Viking Stavanger, in a 3:3 draw, coach Vincent Kompany named him in the starting line-up for the third time this season. Karl managed two harmless shots, no successful dribbles and no duels won. His counter-pressing was poor in the build-up to the 0:2, and Kompany took him off at half-time. What has happened to the wonderkid?
Lennart Karl's exciting debut season ended with him missing the World Cup
During the last winter break, Karl visited a fan club and called Real Madrid "my dream club". The comment sparked considerable debate. For the first time, his performances on the pitch weren't the reason he was in the public eye.
Early in the second half of the season, Karl was far less conspicuous and had far less luck than he had in the autumn. Against TSG Hoffenheim in early February, he got tangled up in a veritable flurry of stepovers. The ball went out of play, and his opponent Alexander Prass mockingly raised his thumb. Karl suddenly began spending entire matches on the bench. He started to excel again in March, until a muscle tear in his thigh stopped him.
While injured, Karl appeared in the stands at the Allianz Arena for the Champions League quarter-final second leg against his "dream club", Real Madrid, wearing a curious, entirely pink outfit. He apparently wanted to attract attention even then. As with his comment about Real, it prompted public debate: was he allowed to do that? Of course he was! Whether the inevitable attention helps him concentrate on football is another question.
Karl returned just in time for the final stretch of the season and finished his first campaign with an impressive 1,984 minutes on the pitch and an even more impressive 17 goal contributions. Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann named him in his World Cup squad and even held out the prospect of a starting place. Karl looked like Germany's great hope until he suffered another muscle tear in training and left the DFB camp in tears. Rehab instead of the World Cup.
IMAGOLennart Karl: A goal in Elversberg, but still no winner
Karl missed Bayern Munich's entire pre-season and did not return until he came on as a substitute against VfB Stuttgart in their Bundesliga opener. "It was a very, very hard road," he said at the time. Bayern Munich suffered their first slip-up of the season in his first start, against Schalke 04 in early September.
A goal in his next start, against SV Elversberg, still didn't leave Karl looking like one of the winners after the match. He drew boos with a needlessly provocative celebration in front of the Elversberg supporters' section. Then, immediately after Elversberg's equaliser, Kompany took him off in a quadruple substitution. Only with the new line-up did Bayern Munich really get going, eventually winning 2:1.
Muscular problems kept Karl out of the subsequent outstanding performance against Union Berlin. He made little impression on his first appearance for the Germany team under Jürgen Klopp. Then came the half-time substitution in Stavanger.
Lennart Karl at Bayern Munich: His team-mates are struggling too
For an 18-year-old, such ups and downs are entirely normal. The talk of a crisis says more about how rapidly Karl developed last season. Fans and club bosses now see him not as a prospect but as a fully fledged member of the squad, and expectations have risen accordingly. Deliberately polarising opinion, whether by calling Real his dream club, wearing the pink outfit, getting caught in that flurry of stepovers or celebrating in front of the Elversberg supporters, also brings more public attention and more extreme judgements in every direction.
Karl's fundamental boldness is a major strength on the pitch. He doesn't simply go through the motions and do a solid job. He takes big risks with his play, his dribbles and his shots. Sometimes nothing works. Sometimes he is outstanding. More than other footballers, Karl thrives on form, momentum and lightness, and right now he has none of them. They will return at some point, just as he rediscovered his form after difficult weeks last spring. For now, he needs room to deal with these spells without undue pressure. To establish himself at Bayern Munich in the long term, though, he should gradually bring more consistency to his performances, particularly in his work off the ball.
With a small squad and a congested fixture list, Bayern Munich will inevitably give Karl more chances, especially as his fellow attackers are struggling for various reasons. Ismael Saibari replaced him at half-time in Stavanger but came off himself late on. Jamal Musiala is still working towards his comeback. Serge Gnabry is only on his way back to his old form after injury. Luis Diaz has looked tense for weeks. Michael Olise will miss the upcoming Champions League match against Arsenal through suspension following his sending-off in Stavanger. Perhaps that biggest of stages is exactly the right moment for Karl's big comeback.