Aussie rising star in advanced talks with Bayern Munich
EXCLUSIVE: Australian young gun Nestory Irankunda’s next career step will likely take him to Germany on a multi-year contract with 32-time Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich, beIN SPORTS can confirm.
Terms between the 17 year-old sensation and the powerhouse club coached by Thomas Tuchel are close to being finalised, with Adelaide United to bank a substantial sum plus add-ons for the winger, who will be loaned back for the 2023-2024 A-League season.
Despite just 680 minutes of A-League football - and eight goals so far - Tanzania-born Irankunda is viewed by Bayern’s technical director Marco Neppe as a project player in a similar vein to wingback Alphonso Davies, who was plucked from the relative obscurity of MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps in 2019 and was tearing it up in the Champions League at just 18.
Now 22, Davies has compiled 106 Bundesliga appearances, the motto of the Die Roten development machine being: if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
To hammer home the point, Bayern’s 28-man first team squad features seven players 20 or younger - midfielders Paul Wanner and Arijon Ibrahimović are the same age as Irankunda and already have three Bundesliga appearances between them, while 18 year-old striker Mathys Tel has five. Attacker Jamal Musiala, who recently turned 20, has 29 and is considered one of the world’s most gifted prospects.
The equation for Irankunda is straight forward: another bumper season of growth in Australia and forget about the youth academy, he will immediately join Bayern’s fraternity of top squad teenagers on arrival in the Baverian capital.
Called up by the Socceroos in March for the friendlies against Ecuador, Irankunda wasn’t rewarded with a debut in what was more a learning and acclimatisation experience.
It also provided him the chance to bond with 18-year-old Garang Kuol, another highly-trumpeted teenager whose move from Central Coast Mariners to Newcastle United, and subsequent unsuccessful loan to Hearts, is an unfolding tale of how things don’t always go to plan, no matter how hyperbolic the expectations.
Regardless, a bejewelled pathway shimmers before Irankunda on the proviso the Year 12 kid embraces the less glamorous aspects of the game such as work rate, bins occasional flashes of petulance and allows coaches and senior players to help him best channel his superpowers.
Aside from searing pace and dribbling prowess, what caught Bayern’s eye, it is understood, was the raw, intimidating power of the youngster’s right foot coupled with the ability to find the net from the most outrageous of angles.
Irankunda’s shooting force is of such ferocity it almost defies the laws of physics, and has become as much his trademark as the double and triple backflip goal celebrations
Just ask Melbourne Victory midfielder Rai Marchan, whose head inadvertently got in the way of one of Irankunda’s bombs earlier this season, leaving him sidelined with concussion for nearly two months.
