Romano: Atalanta close to signing Bayern II defender Purkic

This is the starting center-back for the reserve team—a left-footed player, tall and physically strong, with decent ball-playing ability, but poor positioning and technical execution. He was signed from Croatia for €2.8 million, but ultimately failed to live up to expectations.

Over the past two seasons, Bayern’s reserve team and U19 squad have lost more than a dozen players—effectively undergoing a complete rebuild. This is the right approach; Bayern should learn from Real Madrid: create fast-track promotion pathways for high-potential talents, while integrating lower-potential prospects into the U17s, then rapidly advancing them to the U19s and reserve team before selling them—often with buy-back clauses and profit-sharing on subsequent transfers. Crucially, Bayern’s reserve team competes only in the German regional league (Regionalliga), offering virtually no meaningful development platform for players. When promising talents move to other clubs, they almost invariably start at least at the 2. Bundesliga level—benefiting both the player’s growth and the club’s long-term strategy. Had Bayern adopted this model earlier, Ildiz likely wouldn’t have left. The U19s and reserve team were overloaded with attacking midfielders, forcing youth coaches to field absurd lineups featuring five “number 10s” in a single match—even though all performed exceptionally well in youth league competitions. Faced with no realistic pathway to the first team, Ildiz lost hope and ultimately accepted Juventus’ offer.