Bayern Munich fans following our youngsters will be well acquainted with the name Adrian Fein by now. The Germany U-21 player, who plays predominantly in the defensive midfield position, is currently on loan at Hamburger SV where he has delivered solid performances back to back. He’s become a regular starter for the 2.Bundesliga club, and seems no signs of stopping with his incredible development.

Speaking to TZ, former Bayern II coach and current director of the FC Bayern Campus, Holger Seitz feels that the loan move was needed, and crucial to Fein’s development. He stated that some youngsters require “a detour with a loan, as we are practicing with Adrian Fein, who came to HSV via Regensburg.”

For that reason we were of the opinion that the 2. Bundesliga in Regensburg — at the time with Achim Beierlorzer as coach — was the best decision. Achim and his team cultivate an aggressive transition-game.

Holger Seitz and team were right, after all, since the loan moves seem to have helped the player tremendously, to such an extent that a shot at the Bayern first team seems entirely plausible. It is hard to envision the same scenario play out were he still playing for the Bayern II’s. Jahn Regensburg, a high pressing team, helped to develop his physicality, ball playing abilities and vision.

Without Regensburg, the step to HSV would have still been too big for Adrian. And you couldn’t imagine HSV without Adrian now, because he has such a dominant role there. Hence Adrian has come so far in my opinion that he could also play a part with our pros.

BFW Analysis

This is great news for FC Bayern, because as of recently, very few players from the youth academy have had the chance to get some first team minutes, with the last academy player to become a regular starter for Bayern being David Alaba. Fein’s development comes at a good time, since defensive midfield is one of the key areas where Bayern seem to be lacking at the moment.

A pure defensive minded 6 hasn’t emerged at Bayern since Javi Martinez (Thiago being more of a creative, ball-moving 6), and sometimes, you need that kind of player to shut games down or add stability to the midfield. With Fein, we might have just that in our hands — his ball playing abilities being a welcome bonus.

Bayern have lost out on good academy talent before — the first name springing to mind being Niklas Dorsch, a player many saw as the successor to the legendary Toni Kroos. However, Dorsch ended up moving away due to a lack of playing time, and perhaps such situations shouldn’t take place in a club like Bayern, which places huge importance on its youth talent.

With Fein, Bayern might have struck gold. Maybe another year on loan might do him good, but the club needs to capitalize on his talent as soon as possible — we could have our DM problem potentially solved for the next decade. Right now, Adrian’s doing good, but a move to the Bayern first team could be Fein for all parties involved.