Josip Stanisic had the most important summer of his career for Bayern Munich

Admittedly, going into this preseason for Bayern Munich, a large portion of fans would not have recognized the name Josip Stanisic. Fast forward to today, and the 21-year-old has two competitive starts for Bayern under his belt after impressing in preseason friendlies and training under Julian Nagelsmann. He has quickly turned into a more than viable option while Benjamin Pavard is sidelined with an injury.

Per a new report from Tz, Stanisic only signed a professional contract for Bayern at the end of June. Even when preseason camp started, it was the assumption that he would continue to work with Bayern’s reserves, but Nagelsmann and his coaching staff just wanted to get a look at him with the first team. In training, as well as the friendlies, Stanisic has really impressed Nagelsmann, more so then Bouna Sarr, who likely would’ve been Pavard’s replacement had Stanisic’s talent not been discovered.

Per the Tz report, it was FC Bayern campus manager Jochen Sauer who really pushed for Bayern to have Stanisic sign a professional contract with the first team. Even Sauer, though, didn’t expect the youngster to have started Bayern’s first two competitive fixtures against Borussia Monchengladbach (Bundesliga) and Borussia Dortmund (DFL-Supercup). For that matter, he might not have even expected him to do so well and looks well acclimated so quickly, especially with the improvements Bayern’s backline showed from the Gladbach draw to the win over Dortmund in the DFL-Supercup.

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It has also reported that during the summer, instead of taking an extended holiday, Stanisic worked often with his personal trainer to get extra workouts in before preseason camp started. He personally paid his trainer for the extra workouts, and the extra work he put in is yielding fantastic results. He’s already showing a level of maturity that’s refreshing for Nagelsmann and his coaching staff. Even though he’s young and inexperienced at the highest level, he can be trusted to do a job and will likely keep his place in the first team until Pavard returns from his injury and is fully fit. “He’s a reliable player,” Nagelsmann had said after Bayern’s Supercup triumph over Dortmund.