From Can Uzun to Lennart Karl: Five rising Bundesliga stars
The Bundesliga continues to be a hotbed for producing some of the best young talent across Europe, as proven by these five teenagers who are taking the German top flight by storm...
As many as 34 teenagers have played in the Bundesliga this term - only twice before have there been more. Those players have picked up 6,948 minutes between them, the highest tally in 40 years.
While many of those are newcomers to German football, others have risen through the ranks across the country on their way to making an impact at the highest level. Here, we look at a quintet who are amongst the best products of Germany's impressive youth system and are now strutting their stuff for some of the best teams in the country...
Can Uzun
Club: Eintracht Frankfurt
Age: 19 (born 11 November 2005)
Position: Attacking midfielder
Country: Turkey
Uzun has been one of the stand-out performers of the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign already, but he has long been destined for the very top. After starting out at Jahn Regensburg and Ingolstadt, Uzun was already ripping up Bundesliga 2 as a 17-year-old, netting 16 goals in 30 appearances for Nuremberg during the 2023/24 campaign.
Watch: teens taking their chance
Frankfurt beat plenty of competition to acquire his services in the summer of 2024, and Uzun spent last term adapting to the Bundesliga, scoring four times in 20 outings. This season, however, he has become an integral part of the Eagles' side under Dino Toppmöller as they look to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for a second time in succession.
Only Harry Kane and Frankfurt teammate Jonathan Burkardt have scored more than Uzun's five goals, while Farès Chaïbi, also of Eintracht, Luis Díaz and Andrej Ilić are the only three men to have amassed more than his trio of assists. He has developed into a deadly talent, although it is Turkey rather than Germany who are benefitting from that at international level.
Mario Götze, one of Uzun's midfield partners at Frankfurt, was himself a teenage prodigy, and has expressed his excitement about the 19-year-old. “Can is top-class technically and has enormous talent. If he keeps at it, does things well, stays fit, he has huge potential," he said earlier this term.
Watch: Uzun can!
Lennart Karl
Club: Bayern Munich
Age: 18 (born 22 February 2008)
Position: Winger
Nation: Germany
With the likes of Kane and Michael Olise to compete with, grabbing the headlines at Bayern is difficult, yet Karl has been the talk of the town in Munich in recent weeks thanks to his brilliant performances.
After scoring 34 goals for Bayern’s U17 and U19 teams in 2024/25, Karl was rewarded with a place in Vincent Kompany’s squad for the Club World Cup in the USA.
He made his professional debut in a 10-0 win against Auckland City and after an impressive pre-season, the record champions wasted little time in extending the player’s contract. Karl made his first appearance of the current campaign in the 2-1 Franz Beckenbauer Supercup victory over Stuttgart back in August, coming off the bench in second-half stoppage time.
Watch: Karl strike amongst top five from Matchday 8
Karl has already played in six Bundesliga games this season, making his first start in the 4-1 Matchday 4 victory over Hoffenheim - a match in which he provided an assist - to become the second-youngest player in Bayern history.
The performance that announcement him to a wider audience came in the Champions League, as Karl opened the scoring with a stunner against Club Brugge - his maiden effort for the Bavarians, earning him the record of Bayern's youngest-ever scorer in the competition - on his way to picking up the Man of the Match award.
He followed that up with another terrific strike against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Matchday 8. He has proven to be a constant attacking threat whenever he has featured, firing off a shot every 14 minutes on average - for context, Bundesliga leading scorer Kane averages an effort every 28 minutes.
The England captain has been glowing in his praise of the U17 Germany international, and believes he could soon shine with the Nationalelf. He said, "He’s a fantastic player. He’s not afraid to dribble. He just has to keep working hard, and he’ll have a great future ahead of him.
“Who knows? If he plays a bit more from now on and plays like he did [against Club Brugge], then he has a chance [of making it to Germany's squad for the 2026 World Cup]."
Watch: the Bundesliga's best teen goals!
Saïd El Mala
Club: Cologne
Age: 19 (born 26 August 2006)
Position: Winger
Nation: Germany
Signed from Viktoria Cologne alongside his brother Malek in 2024, Saïd El Mala has shot to stardom. The Cologne winger spent last season on loan at his former club in the 3. Liga, where he scored 13 goals in 32 appearances (30 starts), but he has not looked out of place in the top flight this term.
After scoring his team’s fourth against Freiburg on Matchday 2, El Mala was handed a first start on Matchday 6 against Hoffenheim and scored a superb solo-goal in a 1-0 win at the PreZero Arena, dribbling past three players before firing a ferocious effort past Oliver Baumann.
El Mala’s keen eye for goal made him one of Germany’s standout players at the 2025 European U19 Championship, where he netted four goals - a joint-leading tally at the finals - and as many assists.
Despite coming off the bench in six of eight top-flight appearances this season, no player has dribbled more than the teenager in the Bundesliga, while he been involved in a shot on goal every 16 minutes.
“Saïd is a good boy, a street footballer who simply has God-given gifts,” Cologne head coach Lukas Kwasniok told Sky Germany after the win in Sinsheim.
Assan Ouédraogo
Club: RB Leipzig
Age: 19 (born 9 May 2006)
Position: Midfielder
Country: Germany
The Bundesliga would probably know all about Ouédraogo's ability much sooner had he not been plagued by injuries throughout the 2024/25 season. A jewel in Schalke's crown after nine years on their youth books, the midfielder starred during the early months of 2023/24 before a ligament tear stopped him in his tracks.
While that didn't dissuade Leipzig from pouncing to acquire his services in the summer of 2024, knee and hamstring issues restricted Ouédraogo - a former U17 European and World champion - to just three Bundesliga outings last term. However, after coming on a substitute in the opening three matchdays of this campaign, he has started each of the past five to become a key cog in the Saxony outfit's engine room.
He scored on his first start for the club against Cologne, and now has four goal contributions to his name (two goals, two assists) - only Christoph Baumgartner has managed more. He is not only impressive going forward, though, winning 57 percent of the duels he has competed in so far.
Following his display against Cologne, Ole Werner said, "He provided exactly what we wanted: confidence on the ball in midfield and a goal threat. He’s someone who can play the final pass. I’m delighted for him that he was able to back up his training performances."
Finn Jeltsch
Club: VfB Stuttgart
Age: 19 (born 17 July 2006)
Position: Centre-back
Country: Germany
The second Nuremberg academy graduate on this list, Jeltsch made his debut as a 17-year-old for Der Club in February 2024. He went on to make a further 32 appearances before making the switch to Stuttgart in January of this year.
Despite his lack of Bundesliga experience, Jeltsch was almost immediately a regular starter for the Swabians, playing the full 90 minutes in eight league matches before the end of the 2024/25. He also began and finished the DFB Cup semi-final win over Leipzig, although he came on from the bench in the final triumph against Arminia Bielefeld.
This term has been a bit stop-start for the centre-back due to injury, but he has still made four appearances in the Bundesliga, helping his team to keep two clean sheets. As recognition for his development, Jeltsch was awarded the Fritz Walter U19 Gold Medal, given to the best player of that age group in Germany.
Upon that announcement, Jeltsch's ex-coach at Nuremberg Miroslav Klose, himself a Germany legend, said, "He's a fantastic boy who has come a long way in Nuremberg. I'm following him at Stuttgart just the same. He has the quality to have a truly great career."
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