Sammer: Joshua Kimmich will someday captain Bayern Munich and Germany

Even with the disappointing week Bayern Munich had in the league with the 1-1 draw to Augsburg and the 2-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin, right-back Joshua Kimmich has been one of the most consistent bright spots in the squad this season. The 23-year old has played every minute of all of Bayern’s nine competitive matches across all competitions thus far this season, picking up right where he left off in what was a thoroughly impressive 2017/2018 campaign.

Speaking to Eurosport (via tz) prior to kickoff of the Berlin match, ex-Bayern Munich sporting director Matthias Sammer said that it won’t be too long before we see Kimmich wear the captain’s armband for Die Roten and become a true leader for both club and country:

Joshua Kimmich is a player with a strong mentality. He’ll be captain sooner or later, a leading player at Bayern and also on the national team.

Kimmich, Sammer continued, possesses the right attitude and hunger to constantly improve his game, which is exactly the type of character Bayern need to lead the team:

He already offers the personal qualities. You have to have this ambition in you. You always have to strive for the highest level.

Sammer sees precisely these qualities in Kimmich as an “intelligent player with a strong game.”

Ever since he’s established himself as a concrete starter at right back, Kimmich has shown a fiery passion on the pitch. He’s the type of player who wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s the type of passion that’s clearly evident when he’s demanding more of his teammates, even when Bayern are winning and especially when they are not, as after the teams recent loss in Berlin.

After the game, Kimmich spoke to Eurosport and responded to Sammer’s remarks about the future captaincy:

It’s not the case that I’ve told my self I want to be a leading player now. But I know that you can’t win any games by yourself, so I try to pull along the others with my own performance. I believe that on the pitch you should treat everyone as equal. You shouldn’t be afraid to say something to someone like Thomas (Müller) or Jerome (Boateng). That’s important for our game.

(Photo by Lukasz Laskowski/PressFocus/MB Media/Getty Images)