In the summer of 2016, Manfred Schwabl had an appointment at school. The conversation with the rector was “icy”, he recalls. Because the faculty had the feeling that one of the students had nothing on his mind but football. When there was gymnastics instead of kicks in school, the then 14-year-old Karim Adeyemi suddenly forgot his gym bag. There were small anomalies that led to Schwabl, then as now President of the SpVgg Unterhaching, to make representations.
He then made a clear statement to Adeyemi: If he didn’t pull himself together at school, there would be no training or games. “It was like taking away a child’s favorite toy for a moment. That might make a difference,” says Schwabl.
However, his educational trick only partially worked: A further conversation with the rector was not necessary. Karim Adeyemi probably continued to spend most of his time with football. Six years later, he wouldn’t be one of the most sought-after young professionals in Europe, a German national player – and FC Red Bull Salzburg’s hope in the Champions League round of 16 second leg against FC Bayern this Tuesday.
Okafor and Adeyemi are currently the ones that Salzburg’s offensive game revolves around
For Adeyemi, the trip to the second leg is also a return to the city where he grew up. The son of a Nigerian father and a Romanian mother learned to play soccer in Munich. He briefly switched from TSV Forstenried to FC Bayern as a child, before moving to Unterhaching in 2012. Youth coach Marc Unterberger saw him at a tournament and gave Adeyemi’s father his number. The parents got in touch after a few weeks.
Even then it was difficult to stop: Adeyemi in a game against Bayern’s B-Juniors
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Forstenried, Bayern, Haching – these were stations that many talents scour through in Munich youth football, but FC Bayern is usually at the end of the list and not in between. However, Adeyemi’s connections extend more to Unterhaching than to Säbener Straße. And ever since Adeyemi’s international debut and goal against Armenia, Schwabl, 55, has also been known as the striker’s sponsor.
“I definitely think that we have contributed something to his personal development here in Haching,” says Schwabl, who continues to have a close relationship with Adeyemi and his family; at the international match in Stuttgart they sat together in the stands. For players with such an obviously great talent, there is actually only one danger to their careers, says Schwabl: that personal development does not keep pace with sporting ones.
Schwabl knows today that Adeyemi’s “tens of thousands have fallen soon.” “He simply doesn’t think anything of it if he misses three times, then he just shoots four, five, six times.” In his own career as a professional with FC Bayern, 1. FC Nürnberg and 1860 Munich, he often witnessed that talented strikers were consumed by self-doubt, says Schwabl. Adeyemi is different.
Even then, the people from Haching took special care of their outstanding talent. And for Schwabl, Adeyemi is still a Hachinger today. He kept his room in the Munich suburb after moving to Salzburg in 2019. Three Hachinger youth players currently live there, and the guest house is managed by Adeyemi’s parents.
Soon to Borussia Dortmund? In any case, according to Schwabl, the Premier League is coming too soon
Geographically speaking, the step to Salzburg was not an entry into a new world, but in terms of football it was. At the age of 16, Adeyemi was already training in the U19s of the Salzburg youth department in Liefering. His talent was documented in Europe. When Salzburg announced the transfer, it was an indication that many of the best young talents are now really gathering in Austria.
The knowledge that he was already available as his successor also made it easier to say goodbye to Erling Haaland in Salzburg: Adeyemi never matched the Norwegian’s goal quota, but took his place as a quick, flexible striker. In the system of coach Matthias Jaissle, the 20-year-old gets a lot of freedom, but not everything is tailored to him: Salzburg meanwhile shifts the scoring to several shoulders, which is why the impending absence of Noah Okafor, who is also being courted in Europe, on Tuesday evening certainly raises the ambitions for a surprise would restrict in Munich.
Okafor and Adeyemi are currently the ones that the Salzburg offensive game revolves around – and the transfer talk. Adeyemi could follow Haaland again in Dortmund, even if, according to reports, debates about the transfer fee are still holding up business. In any case, it seems unlikely that Adeyemi will still play in Salzburg next year. At least in Haching there would be no objection to a move: around 20 percent of the transfer fee for Salzburg would be transferred to SpVgg.
Incidentally, the mentor does not want to comment on the further career of his former rascal: Manfred Schwabl does think that Adeyemi is “predestined for the island” because of his playing system, i.e. for the Premier League. According to his taste, this step would come a bit too early.