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Bayern academy starlet named Fritz Walter Medal in Bronze winner

The defender joins the likes of Toni Kroos and Mario Gotze to have won the medal.

Portugal U17 vs Germany U17, Algarve Cup U17
Mai in action vs Portugal
Photo by Ricardo Nascimento/Getty Images

After Captaining Bayern’s U-17 side to a Bundesliga title and helping Germany’s U-17 squad reach the semifinals of this year’s European Championships, defender Lars Lukas Mai has been awarded the U-17 Fritz Walter Medal in Bronze for his outstanding season.

Mai, 17, has made 49 appearances for Bayern’s U-17s in the last two seasons, and a further 14 for Germany’s U-17s, occupying a spot in the center of defense in a large majority of games. This upcoming season he’ll be moving up to join the U-19 side that’ll be looking to build off of their successful second-place finish of last season.

The Fritz Walter medal, given in Gold, Silver, and Bronze, is awarded annually to the top youth player’s in Germany at both the U-17 and U-19 levels (formerly also U-18).

Though only Toni Kroos (U-18, Gold), Emre Can (U-17, Gold), and Niklas Dorsch (U-17, Silver) have been able to capture the award as Bayern players before him, many former winners currently don the kit of the Rekordmeister.

Manuel Neuer (U-19) and Joshua Kimmich (U-18) both won the award in Silver, with Kimmich also receiving the Bronze medal as a U-19 player. Jerome Boateng won the award in Bronze as a U-19 player, and former Bayern player Mario Gotze actually received Gold twice, winning the award as both a U-17 and U-18 player.

Beating out Mai for this year’s Gold and Silver medals are Hamburg striker Jann-Fiete Arp and Werder Bremen midfielder Jean-Manuel Mbom, respectively.

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