Serge Gnabry was distraught after his father blocked a move to Bayern Munich

Serge Gnabry is on cloud nine right now. The Bayern Munich winger is one of the first names on the team sheet for both club and country, just slotted four excellent goals past Tottenham, and is starring for one of Europe’s best teams. Yet his path to Bavaria wasn’t a smooth one. In an interview with Bild, Gnabry gave some interesting insight about how he wasn’t allowed to move to Bayern when he was ten.

Fourteen years ago, the now 24-year-old was desperate for a move to Bayern’s esteemed youth academy. However, these dreams were crushed by his father who refused to let his son play for Bayern at such an early age. Gnabry was understandably devastated and still remembers his crying and pain at this “irreversible decision”:

Oh man, I was so pissed off back then. I was completely beside myself and cried. But my dad stood firm.

Gnabry senior wanted to remain personally involved in his son’s training as a coach, but that was impossible at Bayern. Now that it’s all worked out, Gnabry seems to respect his father’s decision and acknowledged that in hindsight, things possibly worked out for the best:

Only when I was 12 years old was I allowed to join VfB Stuttgart. In the end I have to admit that his decisions were not wrong.

After Stuttgart, Gnabry ventured to London in 2011, where he had an ultimately unsuccessful spell at Arsenal. Afterwards, short spells at Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim have preceded his Bayern Munich tenure. Fortunately, the versatile forward seems settled in Munich and that can only be a bonus for Bayern!