Wednesday, September 8th, 2021
“Redeemer” Karim Adeyemi?
Spurned by Bavaria, “flashed” under Flick
Needed by David
Is the solution to the German striker problem Karim Adeyemi? The 19-year-old once looked up to Arjen Robben and was kicked out of FC Bayern, now he enchants RB Salzburg and Hansi Flick. The whirlwind is an adventurer in the field – and could return to Munich.
Even experts scratched their heads. Karim Adeyemi was one of the big surprises in the DFB lineup. Suddenly the RB Salzburg striker was part of the 23-man squad that went to the European Championships in Hungary and Slovenia in early summer. It was May. And the squad had nominated U21 coach Stefan Kuntz. Just four months later, the 19-year-old is suddenly on the field for the senior national team and scores directly on his debut against Armenia. Football Germany is amazed again.
Hansi Flick has of course been on Adeyemi’s list for a long time, after all, the striker is playing for the youth national teams. In 2019 he was awarded the U17 Fritz Walter Gold Medal for the best young footballer in his age group. After seven goals and nine assists in 29 league games last year, he has already scored six goals and one assist in six games this season. Most recently, Flicks Scout Hermann Gerland observed the 19-year-old twice on site.
What might Gerland have discovered? Adeyemi is one of those difference players that every coach would like to have on his team. An adventurer who makes things easy. Where not everything works according to plan. One who surprises and takes risks. Fast as an arrow and extremely strong in one-on-one, the left-footed foot can be used flexibly in the middle and in the outer positions. He proves his nose for goals and his variability, for example, on the first matchday of this Bundesliga season in Austria. First, Adeyemi maneuvers the ball to 1: 1 in a center-forward style with his ribs from five meters over the line, then he hits a dream flank from the left to 2: 1, and finally, with a low shot from 18 meters, the 3: 1 final score. A one-man show in just under 20 minutes.
Adeyemi also convinces with his mentality: positively aggressive, self-confident, goal-oriented, never wasting a thought on giving up. Attributes that the German national team lacked for a long time. The attacker needs this bite in his youth. At around 177 centimeters, he is not exactly tall. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why Bayern spurned him in 2012 after two years at the club and sent him away. But there should also have been alleged disciplinary problems.
“Back then I was still a child and not the quietest. That bothered Bavaria and they sorted me out,” Adeyemi reveals to “Bild” in the summer. “I don’t think I had a discipline problem, maybe I was a bit of a bully and a bit jittery.” The youth born in Munich, his first stop before the Munich team is TSV Forstenried, so from now on he will not fight his way through with the record champions, but with SpVgg Unterhaching.
“He was a little Bazi,” remembers Manfred Schwabl, President of the Spielvereinigung, recently back at Bayerischer Rundfunk about the young jewel that didn’t give much to school back then. For him there is only football. Arjen Robben hangs in the form of a poster on his room wall. Like the former number 10 of FC Bayern, Adeyemi also likes to pull from the right to the inside to pull off with his strong left foot. He does it so well that at some point he becomes too good for the Munich suburb club. The teenager also matures more and more mentally.
From the Hachinger A-youth, the then 16-year-old Talent 2018 is going to RB Salzburg. For the club’s record transfer fee of 3.35 million euros. Chelsea FC, Atlético Madrid and Liverpool FC also made offers to Adeyemi, which he refused. After a time with the Salzburg farm team FC Liefering, the striker finally made his breakthrough at RB in early 2020, celebrating two championships and two cup wins.
And now the dream debut in the DFB-Elf. “I’m still flashing,” said the 19-year-old half an hour after the 6-0 win against Armenia on Sunday. It is quite possible that he will play against Iceland in Reykjavik (8.45 p.m. / RTL and in the live ticker on ntv.de.) is allowed to run again, because Marco Reus misses the game with slight knee problems and Kai Havertz has just returned from a flu-like infection. Maybe even the starting XI is waving? In its development it seems only a matter of time. Adeyemi could even be the answer to the sometimes desperate search for a center striker at the DFB. But there is still a long way to go before the “Savior”.
But Hansi Flick praised after the first goal: “He showed that he is freezing in front of the goal.” And what a hit it is. Stoppage time is running, Adeyemi is there on the pitch for 19 minutes. Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz picks up the pace and fits the Salzburg man who, with his back to the goal on the edge of the box, acts mentally and instinctively the one-two with a heel. Then he turns on his own axis, takes a few quick steps into the penalty area and gets the ball back from Wirtz. With his left, the striker lets the ball drip off slightly and then fools the defender and the goalkeeper between the posts with his gaze completely without moving: Adeyemi aims at the long post, only to then suddenly with a no-look shot short corner to hit. Such a beautifully played goal has not been seen in a long time with the national team.
No wonder that the DFB kicker now also plays a role in speculation about transfers of the big clubs. FC Bayern are said to be interested in bringing the once scorned back and training them to be Robert Lewandowski’s successor. At RB Salzburg, the attacker still has a contract until 2024, and “Transfermarkt.de” estimates his market value at 20 million euros. The change would certainly be much cheaper – and, above all, feasible – than a transfer from Erling Haaland. But Jürgen Klopps FC Liverpool and FC Barcelona should also be on the youngster.
At Salzburg, Adeyemi is allowed to make mistakes. It goes through a maturation process that Hansi Flick is now also accompanying. The fact that the national coach appoints the 19-year-old directly to his first squad can be understood as a sign and should give the jewel even more self-confidence. He started to “stutter” when Flick called him, as he recently told Sky Austria.
Serge Gnabry and Kylian Mbappé are his role models. There is still a long way to go until then, but if the striker continues to work hard and remains injury-free, everything is prepared for a great career. Maybe even with a return to Bayern. “You never know what the future will bring,” says Karim Adeyemi in “kicker” in mid-August. I never said that I didn’t like Bayern anymore because of my time there or anything. “
.