Junior national player
©IMAGO
Benno Kaltefleiter signed his first professional contract with RB Leipzig shortly after his 18th birthday. The midfielder, who has four appearances for the U17 national team and was at the World Cup in November, is now tied to the Red Bulls until 2029.
Kaltefleiter is still waiting for his first appearance with the professionals and a look at the statistics shows that the chances of a breakthrough with the Saxons are not that great. Although four talents from our own offspring, Viggo Gebel (18), Jonathan Norbye (18), Joyeux Masanka Bungi (19) and Kaltefleiter, have professional status, this quartet only makes two Bundesliga appearances. Instead, Samba Konaté (16) and Andrija Maksimovic (17) made their debut this season, both of whom were only signed by other clubs abroad in the summer.
Today’s most valuable players who came through the RB youth ranks all reached their career peak elsewhere. These include Ermedin Demirovic (27) and Jeff Chabot (28, both VfB Stuttgart), Vitaly Janelt (27, FC Brentford), Nicolas Kühn (26, Como 1907), Philipp Treu (25, SC Freiburg) and Eric Martel (23, 1. FC Köln).