Clubs and players now surround themselves with heavily armed PR teams, all of them keen to present themselves and their achievements in the best possible light. Reporters trumpet transfers, negotiations and call-ups with relentless enthusiasm. You could easily assume that, in German football in 2026, nothing stays hidden. Which makes it all the more striking that on 30 August a new competition, one that had been widely discussed in advance, simply began without the public noticing at the time.
Just two days after the opening game, second-tier club 1. FC Nuremberg posted a “results update from the Bundesliga Talent Series” on their not especially far-reaching X account “ClubNachwuchs” (1,471 followers) and wrote: “On Sunday, 1. FC Nuremberg played their first match in the new competition. Goals from Keller, Scholl, Chiumento and Moustfa gave the Club a 4-0 win over RB Leipzig. Strong, lads!”
Nuremberg added: “We ask for your understanding that, due to the Bundesliga guidelines that are relevant for us, we are obliged to publish only the match result and the goalscorers. We are currently not permitted to publish the line-up beyond that.” There was no information about the match on Nuremberg’s website, or on Leipzig’s.
The Bundesliga, too, published only the result and the goalscorers, and even that came later. This report has since been kept up to date with further matches already played. Eight games have now taken place in the Talent Series, with 26 German top-flight and second-tier clubs involved through their youth teams, the latest on 16 September. As with Nuremberg and Leipzig, the other clubs have also avoided publishing match reports. Future fixture lists cannot be viewed anywhere.
Earlier, the DFL had already stated in a press release that the matches are to take place behind closed doors for organisational and financial reasons. Even so, the consistency with which all information beyond results and goalscorers is being withheld still feels unusual. It probably does spare everyone a fair bit of confusion. The format and regulations are highly complex.
Jürgen Klopp’s proposal did not find a majority
First, the reasons for its introduction. “One starting point for the debate was, among other things, the fact that we saw room for improvement in the transitional area between youth and professionals,” explains youth chief Jochen Sauer of Bayern Munich in an interview with SPOX. “We found that in the U17, U19 and U23 we have players who, among other things, get too few minutes and too little match practice at a high level. At the same time, we believe that playing time is a decisive factor in getting better.”
Among those in the expert group tasked last October with finding solutions were Sauer, World Cup winner Sami Khedira, DFL executive Marc Lenz, DFB managing director Andreas Rettig, Eintracht Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krösche, Joti Chatzialexiou of 1. FC Nuremberg and current Germany head coach Jürgen Klopp, then still in his role as Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull.
Klopp entered those discussions with a clear view. “I am firmly convinced that we need our own U21 league in Germany. England have one: Premier League 2,” he told Welt am Sonntag in June 2025. In Germany, reserve teams play in the normal league pyramid up to a maximum of the 3. Liga. In England, they face each other in a separate competition. Klopp’s idea, however, met resistance. “I spoke to many people in England. They are not really happy with their reserve league,” Sauer told Kicker at the time, which is why he had been “surprised” by Klopp’s proposal.
Part of Klopp’s thinking also came from the situation in Leipzig’s academy. RBL withdrew their reserve team from competition in 2017, and since then a gap has opened up between the youth set-up and the professionals. Viewed from today’s perspective, that decision is especially interesting because the withdrawal of the reserve side is said to have played a decisive role in a certain Philipp Treu moving from Leipzig to SC Freiburg in 2017. He is now 25 years old and Klopp’s great right-back hope in the DFB team.
IMAGOHow does the Bundesliga Talent Series work?
Rather than introducing the U21 championship Klopp wanted, the expert group agreed in March on the Bundesliga Talent Series. The competition is voluntary and flexible in every respect, designed to supplement the regular schedules of the U17, U19 and, where available, the reserve team playing in men’s football. If it had a motto, it would probably be: “Anything goes, nothing is compulsory.”
As a rule, talents aged between 16 and 21 from all existing teams are eligible to play, and clubs may also use up to four older players. “This not only enables the targeted development of young talents, but also offers players returning from injury layoffs a platform for re-entering competitive action,” the press release says.
All Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga clubs can decide for themselves whether to take part. In the first season now under way, 26 of 36 are involved, including 11 Bundesliga clubs such as Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt. By contrast, Bayer Leverkusen, Freiburg, VfB Stuttgart and 1. FC Cologne are among those missing.
The competition is split into two half-seasons, one in the autumn and one in the spring. In each half-season, clubs can play between three and six matches as they see fit. Dortmund and Bayern Munich, who will only join in the second half-season at the start of 2027, have not played any matches so far.
Between themselves, clubs can agree home advantage, kick-off times and a match length of between 90 and 120 minutes with one to three breaks. The table is based on average points per game, and the two best-placed clubs in each half-season will contest the title in a Final Four at the end of the season. Spectators are then expected to be admitted as well.
Which clubs are taking part in the Bundesliga Talent Series?
- Bundesliga: 1. FC Union Berlin, Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund, SV Elversberg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Hamburger SV, RB Leipzig, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayern Munich, SC Paderborn 07, Schalke 04
- 2. Bundesliga: Hertha BSC, Arminia Bielefeld, VfL Bochum 1848, Eintracht Braunschweig, Energie Cottbus, SV Darmstadt 98, Dynamo Dresden, Greuther Fürth, Hannover 96, 1. FC Heidenheim 1846, Holstein Kiel, 1. FC Magdeburg, 1. FC Nuremberg, FC St. Pauli, VfL Wolfsburg
