Chris Richards continued his rapid rise at Bayern Munich on Saturday by earning the first Bundesliga appearance of his career.
The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team standout came on as an 84th-minute substitute in Bayern’s 3-1 win against Freiburg, becoming the third American to play a Bundesliga match, and fourth to make an official appearance, for the Bundesliga champions.
You absolutely LOVE to see it. 🇺🇸 @eastmamba pic.twitter.com/unxQVR7NeA
— 🇺🇸 FC Bayern US 🇨🇦 (@FCBayernUS) June 20, 2020
Richards joined USMNT legend Landon Donovan and German-American Wolfgang Suhnholz as Americans to play a Bundesliga match. Former USMNT World Cup goal-scorer Julian Green played in the Champions League for Bayern but never made a Bundesliga appearance for the club.
Richards made a $1.25 million transfer from FC Dallas to Bayern in January of 2019, staying in Germany after a successful loan stint with Bayern’s U-19 teams. He went on to star at the Under-20 World Cup in the summer of 2019, helping the Americans reach the quarterfinals. Richards was widely-regarded as one of the best players in the tournament.
Richards followed up that strong Under-20 World Cup with a promotion from Bayern’s U-19 team to Bayern II in the German third division. He became a regular starter for Bayern II, impressing with his passing, defending and aerial dominance.
The 20-year-old Alabama native could see an increase role for Bayern next season, with aging central defenders Jerome Boateng and Javi Martinez expected to move on. The rapid rise of Canadian defender Alphonso Davies shows Bayern isn’t afraid to give young players a chance, and Richards has established himself as one of the top prospects in Bayern’s development system.
which means our conservative coach will now treat him like he’s NT-ready. i don’t get why we can’t be a little Green/Donovan/Pulisic and anticipate player readiness without having to defer to their club teams. he was a dominant U20 and better than Dest for sure.
Lol…..Green. That coach
was calling in every Fan wet dream player for that Euro camp that got cancelled. Don’t ever change. We know u cant but its great to come back every few mths and watch u spout the same one dimensional ignorance. Your logic is why net genius is all u will ever have in life.
Sad.
Flick on Richards and Musiala’s appearance today, “both of them are well on there way. That’s why we rewarded them both today, so that they could get a taste of the Bundesliga. It’s still a long way before you are allowed to play for Bayern Munich.”
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Most likely to be sent out on loan next season, then we’ll see week in and week out if he’s ready and consistent enough to play for the the NT. Last October he started along side CCV and Antonee Robinson in what looked like a probable backline for the Olympics. He’s rated by Berhalter he’s just not proven he’s ready to play against international level senior competition. Getting on the pitch today proves nothing more than that as well. He played 6 mins in a game that was over that meant nothing to his club’s standing. If he’d started or even come on at halftime you could make a case but criticizing 3G for not calling him up because he played 6 meaningless minutes is pretty silly even for you.