Every U-23 squad is allowed to have three players that are over 23-years-old. They are there to provide experience and leadership in a young squad. That was what then-29-year-old midfielder Timo Kern was signed for when Bayern Munich persuaded him to join their U-23 squad from SV Waldhof Mannheim in 2019. A promotion to captain, one 3. Liga title, 138 games, 49 and 23 assists later, Kern is set to retire from his footballing career shortly before he turns 35 in January, as revealed via Bayern’s official website:
Timo Kern (34) will end his active career early. The captain of Bayern II will hang up his football boots at the end of the year and will continue to work for the German record champions as a loan player manager under Richard Kitzbichler. Kern’s player contract would have run until June 2025.
The new sporting director of the FC Bayern Campus, Markus Weinzierl, revealed this option was on the table since last summer: “The contract extension last summer [from the summer of 2024 to the summer of 2025] included the option for Timo to leave at his own request during the winter break. Timo has now exercised this option. We would have liked to have seen him continue as a player with us, but we are also very happy that Timo is staying with us in another role in player development.”
Kern also added his own insight into why he made this decision: “I had already thought about ending my career in the summer. My family and I had already planned to return to our home in the Palatinate at that time. Now I’m doing it half a year later and I’m really looking forward to my new role as loan player manager.”
BFW Analysis
Timo Kern has been a loyal player of the club and so vitally important to the U-23s for over half a decade, but it was clear that he was starting to slow down and that he would end his time at Bayern II sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, this announcement comes as a shock. Kern had hardly slowed down THAT much. His presence on the field as well as captain will be severely missed. As Josep Guardiola once so infamously put it, we cannot replace him.
But his role as loan player manager is incredibly interesting. Richard Kitzbichler joined Bayern in the September of 2023, as one of Christoph Freund’s first hires, and though his official role is “coordinator of talent management”, one of his roles was loan player manager. He was the link to the loan players, to give them advice, check in with them, ascertain which loans would suit them best and ensure they felt valued by the club, even while out on loan.
Will that complete role now be passed on to Kern? It seems doubtful, as Kern likely does not have the experience to perform the role to the same level just yet as Kitzbichler. Perhaps he will be mentored in the role by Austrian. It would be interesting to see if Kern would establish himself long term in the role. The advantage Kern has over Kitzbichler is that the former has been one of the leading players of the campus for over five years now, while the latter is still fairly new. The youngsters on the campus might respond better to the guy they know than the one they are not quite as familiar with.
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