Bayern Campus Round Up: U-19’s end of season review and recap
· Yahoo Sports
Welcome to the FC Bayern Campus Round Up of the U-19’s season, where this time not the weekend results but the entire campaign of the Bavarian’s U-19 team has been recapped for your reading pleasure.
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Information on the U-19 team’s season is provided by the official FC Bayern website here. If you wish to learn more about the format of the U-17 (and U-19)’s youth leagues and what is at stake, you can find more info here. Just keep in mind, the season is divided into three phases. The top 2 teams of the 12 games first phase qualify for the next phase, then the top 4 teams of the 10 game second phase qualify for the third phase, which becomes a knockout style tournament. Without further ado, here is the round up:
First phase: An admirable attitude leads Bayern to the top of the table
The Bavarians’ U-19s started the season terribly with a loss to Hansa Rostock’s U-19s in the Junior DFB Pokal. Despite taking a comfortable 2-0 lead against their unfashioned opponents, Rostock roared back and leveled the game. After 120 minutes, it remained 2-2 and forced a penalty shootout, which the underdogs unfortunately won. While the senior team overcame their demons and won the 2026 DFB Pokal, the U-19s continue to struggle. This is now the second time in two seasons the Bavarians had been knocked out in the first round of the U019 domestic cup. This will have to improve.
However, Bayern bounced back well by winning 5 of the 6 opening matches in the domestic league. The highlight of those matches was a 7-1 thumping over Stuttgarter Kickers, who would finish bottom of the group, though it was frustrating to only get a 2-2 draw against rivals SpVgg Unterhaching. That feeling of frustration against rivals continued as 1859+1 Munich got the better of Bayern, beating them 1:0 away in an awful performance by the red side of Munich.
Again, frustration from a poor result would be used to excellent effect as Bayern would contest their return matches against Unterhaching and 1859+1 within a week of one another and win both, 4-2 and 2-1 respectively. Having essentially already secured the top spot in the league, however, Bayern then let their foot off the gas and lost to both eventual 2nd placed Augsburg and, more unforgivably, Stuttgarter Kickers. A 3-2 victory against SC Freiburg on the last day of the first phase did seal top spot in the end, though.
Unsurprisingly, the team turned out to be quite top heavy. The defense struggled heavily, keeping not one clean sheet across all 12 games. However, Bayern’s website captured the strong performances of the attack:
The key to [head coach] Peter Gaydarov’s team’s success in both the preliminary and main rounds was their top line. With 32 goals, they shared the top offensive line with SSV Ulm 1846. “A key issue was that we created a large number of excellent scoring opportunities in almost every game. However, we didn’t always capitalize on them,” said Gaydarov. The Munich players consistently demonstrated their scoring prowess, particularly in front of the opponent’s net. Maycon Douglas Cardozo, Yll Gashi, and Moritz Göttlicher [now at VFL Bochum] each scored four goals. Bogdan Olychenko, Roy Snip, and Frank Egwuatu each netted three. In addition, ten other players contributed one or two goals to Gaydarov’s tally.
Phase 2: Bayern squeak through
While Bayern comfortably finished top in the first phase, they were lucky not to get eliminated in this phase. An opening 2-0 loss to Kaiserslautern followed by a 5-1 vict0ry over Hannover set the tone for an inconsistent second phase. Aside from the 2 games against bottom side Berliner AK, who did not collect a single point, Bayern won just 2 of 8 games. Meanwhile, they lost 3 and drew 3.
The Bavarians were in serious danger of dropping down to the bottom of the table and not qualifying for the Round of 16 by Matchday 9. They had to ensure opponents Borussia Mönchengladbach did not win and pull ahead, so they wasted time and settled for a 2-2 draw to give themselves the opportunity to go through with a point against Rasenballsport Leipzig on Matchday 10. That they did with a 3-3 draw, which Bogdan Olychenko barely rescued towards the end of the match. This point was just enough to put Bayern through in 4th place, barely squeaking into the third phase.
Again, the attack excelled while the defense crumbled. Only one clean sheet was held, against punching bags Berliner AK, while 21 goals were conceded in 10 games. Bayern’s website does capture the outstanding attacking performance, however:
In the main [second] round of the DFB Youth League, Bayern Munich’s attacking line continued its relentless pace, once again boasting the best offense in the group with 29 goals. Eleven different players found the net for Bayern in the second half of the season as well. Egwuatu and Gashi, with five goals each, were primarily responsible for the potent attack, followed by Snip and Noah Codjo-Evora with three goals each.
we have to be honest and say that we didn’t capitalize on these numerous opportunities and our dominance in some crucial moments,” summarized Gaydarov. “In many matches, such as against Arsenal or Hannover, we had periods where we were able to take control of the game, only to be punished shortly afterward by conceding some painful goals. That was one of our biggest learning experiences.”
Phase 3: Outclassed
Unfortunately, Bayern’s qualification as the 4th placed seeded them against a 1st placed team from another group. This saw Bayern travel to last season’s winners, FC Köln, for the Round of 16. The contest was over before half time. The home side wore Bayern down, hit them hard just before the half time break and eventually overwhelmed them in a 4-0 battering.
UEFA Youth League: Not good enough
The UEFA Youth League is quite similar to the Champions League, considering that 36 teams play 6 games and are all grouped into one big table. The top 22 teams qualify automatically for the knockout rounds. In the 2024/25 season, the U-19s only just managed to qualify among the top 22 but then went on to reach the quarterfinals, the farthest they had ever managed in the competition.
In the 2025/26 season, there was no such fight. Bayern finished 27th in the table on just 4 points. They faced very good teams such as Chelsea, PSG and Club Brugge but offered so little fight in any of those matches. They even lost to Arsenal’s U-19s, making it the only Youth League game the Londoners did not lose.
Bayern’s website has more details:
“The Youth League was a great experience for many players. At this level, every mistake is punished immediately, and at the same time, the boys get a real feel for what international intensity, pace, and decision-making mean,” Gaydarov summarized. The thrilling opening match against Chelsea (2-3) , in which Gaydarov’s team relinquished a halftime lead, was followed by their first and only victory against Pafos (3-0) . The next three matches against Club Brugge (0-3) , PSG (0-3) , and Arsenal (4-2) were sobering. Bayern’s youth team provided a more positive conclusion with a 3-3 draw against Sporting Lisbon.
Final verdict on the season
Clearly, the results were terrible. The DFB Pokal run was a disaster, the UEFA Youth League run was a disaster and the league performances were decent at best. There were few games in which the team truly reached its’ potential together.
As always, though, the priority remains youth development over results and many players celebrated significant milestones, as Bayern’s website captured:
Several promising young talents from FC Bayern Munich’s U19 team made their professional debuts this season.
Wisdom Mike kicked things off in the home match against SV Werder Bremen, followed by Cassiano Kiala and David Santos Daiber , who both got their first professional minutes in the away game against 1. FC Heidenheim.
Maycon Douglas Cardozo also fulfilled a childhood dream with his Bundesliga debut in early March against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Deniz Ofli debuted in the Champions League home game against Atalanta Bergamo before coming on as a substitute in the Bundesliga home win against VfB Stuttgart and celebrating Bayern’s 35th German championship with the first team on the pitch at the Allianz Arena.
“For us at the campus, there is hardly a better confirmation than seeing young players from our youth academy make the step up to the professional level,” emphasizes Gaydarov, and continues: “The fact that so many players were able to take the next step this season and celebrate their professional or regional league debut is, for me, the greatest confirmation of our daily work at the campus.”
What comes next?
Peter Gaydarov is moving on to pastures anew and most of the U-19s will either leave (on loan or permanently) or be promoted to the U-23s. Most of the promising U-17 team will likely be promoted to the U-19s, with U-17 head coach Leonard Haas following them.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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