Bayern Munich’s Chris Richards talks over training battles with Robert Lewandowski

The future of Bayern Munich’s youth is looking bright. One of those stars is United States youth international, Chris Richards. The 20-year-old defender made his Bundesliga debut during the restart last season. Since then, Richards has been a familiar face in the early part of the 2020/21 season for Bayern Munich.

Richards came off the bench in the season opener against Schalke 04 to close out the monumental victory. This short stint earned him his first start on Matchday 3 when he recorded an assist Hertha Berlin. Unfortunately, an injury sustained in that game kept the American defender out of action for a couple of weeks.

Since then, Richards has recovered and played twice for the Bayern second team. He has been fully participating in first-team training and taking on top players such as Robert Lewandowski. In fact, Richards believes the sessions against the world’s best striker have formed him into a better player. It’s hard to argue that you can’t get some serious experience from taking on that quality of player everyday. Richards stated in an interview with Sirius XM (as captured by Bundesliga.com): “Even though a lot of times he gets me, it’s definitely a back-and-forth thing. If I can play against Lewandowski, I can play against any striker in the world.”

Richards is certainly confident in his growth and has clearly made strides this offseason. The 2000-born talent humbly gave himself a 40% take-on success rate against Lewandowski, which is impressive considering who he is going up against. The expectations for Richards aren’t high, but the fact that he openly accepts and embraces these challenges is great to see.

Richards has even showed his versatility in his position, doing an excellent job at an unfamiliar right-back position despite being a natural center-back. By taking pointers from veterans such as Jerome Boateng and David Alaba, the sky is the limit for this young talent. Bayern Munich will need to rely on his competitiveness and work ethic throughout this long and enduring season.