Fresh from Frans Krätzig making his senior debut on Saturday in the 7-0 Bundesliga win over Bochum, another player from the Bayern reserves made their professional bow as Taichi Fukui came on for Joshua Kimmich in the final 30 minutes of the 4-0 victory at Preußen Münster in the DFB Cup.
Fukui is only the second Japanese player to represent Bayern’s first ream, after Takashi Usami played five games (one goal) in 2011/12. “Since I came to Bayern at the start of the year, my big dream had been to make an appearance for the first team. That’s why I’m very pleased and happy about my appearance in Münster. It was fun,” a beaming Taichi said the following morning. “My debut is great motivation for me to keep working hard on myself every day so that further appearances will follow.”
At Bayern since the start of 2023
The 19-year-old joined Bayern at the start of 2023, having become the youngest debutant in the history of J-League club Sagan Tosu in July 2021 and completed a trial with the reserves in summer 2022. Fukui caught the eye and a transfer was agreed for the second half of the 2022/23 season. The central midfielder provided his first assist on his Regionalliga debut when he teed up Hyunju Lee for the last-minute winner against Unterhaching.
The Japan U20 international has made 20 appearances in the Regionalliga Bayern and was called up to the first-team squad by Thomas Tuchel for the first time in the 2-2 draw with Bayer Leverkusen. He was included again against Münster before coming on in the 63rd minute for Kimmich. In his barely half an hour of senior football, he had 31 touches, set up one shot and won all of his duels.
Krätzig gets first competitive goal
The cup game was also a special one for Krätzig, who had to come on after only 11 minutes for the injured Serge Gnabry and then made it 3-0 after a delivery from Kimmich on the stroke of half-time for the first competitive goal of his professional career.
“He’s a good boy, really clear, really humble and alert. A very good footballer. Something will come of him,” Tuchel said after the game in Münster.
Our report from the 4-0 win at Preußen Münster:
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