Niklas Dorsch is turning heads among his Bayern Munich peers

The universal attitude among players and management following Bayern Munich’s tepid 2-1 defeat at the hands of Karlsruher SC was that the club needs to make improvements prior to the start of the Rückrunde. One positive result from the match, however, was the performance of youth prospect Niklas Dorsch. Dorsch, who plays primarily as a deep-lying central midfielder, replaced David Alaba in the 66th minute. His performance caught the eye of teammate Jerome Boateng.

While Boateng admitted that nobody on the team was truly good against Karlsruhe, he singled out the highly-valued midfielder for praise. "Dorsch was good, he was the most aggressive," said Boateng after the match. The praise comes at a pivotal time in Dorsch’s career as he recently joined the senior squad for the winter training camp in Qatar and signed his first professional contract with FC Bayern last September at only seventeen years of age.

Dorsch joined the Bayern youth system in 2012 on a free transfer from Nürnberg and is known for his passing, composure on the ball, and ability to read the game. He captained Bayern’s U17 team for the majority of the 2014-2015 season and heavily featured for Germany’s U17 squad. In 2015, Dorsch received the silver Fritz-Walter Medal for being the second-best youth player to represent Germany that year.