This year’s gold Fritz Walter medals have gone to Nicolas Kühn from Ajax Amsterdam and Karim Adeyemi from FC Liefering, while Klara Bühl from SC Freiburg was chosen by the DFB as the top youngster in the women’s game. The medals for the most prestigious individual awards in German youth football will be awarded on the afternoon of the 6th September, the same day as Germany’s European qualifier against the Netherlands in Hamburg.
Josha Vagnoman (Hamburger SV), Jordan Meyer (VfB Stuttgart) and Lena Sophie Oberdorf (SGS Essen) are the recipients of the silver medals, while the bronze medals have gone to Yann Aurel Bisseck (Holstein Kiel), Lazar Samardzic (Hertha BSC) and Gia Corley (FC Bayern Munich).
“The Fritz Walter Medal has established itself as the most prestigious individual award in German youth football,” said Joti Chatzialexiou, the DFB’s sports chief. “The award winners are blessed with extraordinary sporting talent and have proven to be key figures in their respective national youth teams over the course of last season. Additionally, they have excelled both on and off the pitch due to their huge sporting ambition, illustrated through both their team spirit and general demeanor, which fits in with the values of Fritz Walter. For us, it’s important that these talented players are motivated even further by their medals – they must aim to continue to develop their ability as much as they possibly can, with the intention of ultimately making it to the senior national team, as Klara Bühl and Lena Sophie Oberdorf have already achieved. They must have the ambition to establish themselves as consistent inclusions in the side.”
Following in the footsteps of Däbritz, Draxler and co.
The DFB will honour the work of the academies that helped to produce the medal winners, with all of the amateur teams receiving a portion of the following prize money: €20,000 for gold, €15,000 for silver and €10,000 for bronze. Sara Däbritz (2014), Melanie Leupolz (2013), Babett Peter (2007), Anja Mittag (2005), Matthias Ginter (2013), Timo Werner (2013), Leon Goretzka (2012) and Julian Draxler (2011) are just some of the most successful winners from recent years.
Nicolas Kühn, who received the U19s gold medal, won the Dutch second-division title with Ajax’s reserves and has risen through all of the ranks of the DFB youth teams since the U15s. So far the attacker has made 27 youth team appearances, scoring 13 goals. Karim Adeyemi has picked up the award for the U17s age group. The Munich-born youngster is currently on loan at FC Liefering from RB Salzburg and recently took part in the 2019 U17s European Championship in Ireland and was directly involved in three of the four Germany goals in the tournament (one goal, two assists). The striker has racked up a total of 13 appearances for Germany’s youth teams, scoring five goals.
SC Freiburg’s Klara Bühl is the recipient of the medal (named after former honorary German captain Fritz Walter) for the best female youth player. The attacker made the squad for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, appearing 3 times. She has made a total of 36 caps for the youth teams, scoring 15 goals, while racking up 49 Bundesliga appearances for her club team SC Freiburg, finding the net on 10 occasions.
