FC Bayern: Reunion with the unfulfilled promise Fiete Arp

He still has a lot of contact with a colleague from that difficult and formative time. Fiete Arp and Josip Stanisic met at FC Bayern and often write messages to each other. Since Arp left Munich three years ago, the careers of the two young professionals – both born in 2000 – have taken very different paths.

Stanisic, who is currently injured, won the German championship with Bayer Leverkusen last season, played 20 international matches with Croatia, took part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and has now returned to FC Bayern on loan after an outstanding season with Leverkusen. In Munich, he is a beacon of hope.

Arp plays for Holstein Kiel. The past few years have been quite successful for him too, he was promoted to the Bundesliga with Kiel, making a good contribution with five goals and two assists. He has finally arrived in the German elite class. On this third matchday of the season, he has a special reunion: on Saturday (6.30 p.m., Sky) he and Kiel will host Bayern in the top match.

“For me, as a native of Schleswig-Holstein, it is a big deal to play against FC Bayern with Kiel.” “I’m looking forward to seeing a few faces, a few guys I know from back then, and I just hope that we can do justice to the top game at 6:30 p.m.,” said Arp in a media round.

“Transfer disaster” was written

Fiete Arp was considered a “child prodigy”, a “super talent”, a die Hope for the German striker. The hype surrounding him was enormous. In 2019, at the age of 19, he moved from Hamburger SV to Bayern for five million euros; his salary at Munich is said to have been around four million euros plus bonuses per year. At the time, the people responsible for transfers at Bayern were mainly sports director Hasan Salihamidžić and squad planner Marco Neppe, both of whom no longer work for the club.

But Arp hardly got a chance in Munich and only made one appearance in the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup. He played mainly for the second team and made 42 appearances in the third division.

For two years he was the personification of unfulfilled promise at the record champions. The offensive competition in the star squad was too great, Arp was still very young and quite inexperienced. People wrote about a “transfer flop” and a “transfer disaster”.

In 2021, FC Bayern ended the “misunderstanding”. The young striker from Bad Segeberg returned to northern Germany. Holstein initially loaned him out, and a year later the Munich-based club paid Arp millions to terminate his contract. In Kiel, he was able to develop with significantly less pressure and lower expectations.

Fiete Arp: “I became more mature there”

Arp, now 24, looks back on his two years in Munich without any sadness. He has no grudge against Bayern: “In retrospect, and also with what has happened in the past few years, I feel that I have become more mature there.” Maybe not quite an adult, but definitely more mature.”

He learned a lot at Bayern and saw a world of football that is closed to most people. I really appreciate that. And I’m looking forward to seeing some of the faces there again.”

Kiel lost the first two league games (2:3 against TSG Hoffenheim and 0:2 against VfL Wolfsburg), and coach Marcel Rapp changed one attacker in each. Arp is not the absolute difference maker at Holstein and has also had to deal with injuries. But he seems happy in Kiel and has settled in. He has found his place.

“Yes, I feel better,” he said. “But also because I believe that in order to live the club culture of Bayern Munich, you have to have experienced it for a longer period of time and also have a certain maturity for it.”

The striker also said: “I think this positive arrogance, this self-confidence – you can’t fake it, you can’t learn it in a short time. I think it’s a long process, and at the time I was there, I didn’t have it yet.”

What can we expect on Saturday against Bayern? “We have a team that can definitely compete, and that has played extremely well against good teams at times.” “I do believe that the chance is there,” said Arp. “I think that if you drop points against teams that you supposedly should have gotten points against, you have to get some back where you didn’t plan on getting them.” And maybe this is the weekend when that starts for us. The whole city is looking forward to this game.”

To this party that is so special for Fiete Arp.

Julien Wolff is a football editor. He has been reporting from Munich since 2011 about FC Bayernalso about the Bundesliga and the national team.