Remembering Stuttgart Academy Dream Team

There are football teams that become known because of how successful their academies are, although not every case is as popular as others. For example, a lot of people may bring up how Ajax has regularly produced a lot of high-quality players or even how Manchester United won everything with their Class of '92 generation, but very few will mention examples such as Atalanta or West Ham, for example.

The case of the Stuttgart academy is very similar to the latter as they have produced a lot of high-quality players and some of them have had very successful careers over the years. Some of them have even become key components in some top-class teams, which is saying a lot when considering that Stuttgart is a club with a lot of ups and downs across German football.

These are some of the Stuttgart academy players who have become quite known over the years and have had very successful careers.

Bernd Leno

The German goalkeeper never his professional debut with Stuttgart and signed for Bayer Leverkusen in 2011, where he would end up becoming one of the most coveted young goalkeepers in Europe. And after seven years of constant performances, he signed for English Premier League side Arsenal in the summer of 2018.

Leno's time with Arsenal was filled with ups and downs, mostly due to his own performances and the unstable nature of the club. He was eventually let go in the summer of 2023 and now is playing for Fulham in the Premier League where he has found a degree of stability after such a torrid time at the Emirates.

Timo Werner

The German striker Timo Werner has become known for his pace and hard work off-the-ball, so it makes sense that he has built a very solid career for himself. While he started at Stuttgart in the Bundesliga in 2013, he signed for RB Leipzig in the summer of 2016 where he truly started to make a name for himself.

Werner became one of the top goalscorers in the Bundesliga during this era, also helping RB Leipzig reach the UEFA Champions League semifinals in 2020. He signed for Chelsea that summer and while his time there had a lot of ups and downs as he struggled with English football, he was a key element of the side that won the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League.

He came back to Germany to play with Leipzig for a season and a half before going to England, this time to try out his luck with Tottenham Hotspurs.

Joshua Kimmich

Joshua Kimmich might be one of the most notorious players on this list and his highly successful career with Bayern Munich is a very good example of that. He has won every trophy available at club level and has done so while playing in multiple positions, including right-back, center-back, and midfielder.

He started with Stuttgart at academy level but never made his debut there and signed for RB Leipzig, playing with them in the 2. Bundesliga during the 2014-15 season. Then, Kimmich would be picked up by Bayern Munich the following summer, going as far as becoming a key component of the German juggernaut despite his young age.

It is fair to say that Stuttgart has produced several high-quality players but Kimmich might be the most notorious success story.

Antonio Rüdiger

Antonio Rüdiger actually played in two prominent Bundesliga clubs in his youth, Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart. However, it was with the latter that he started to play professional football and eventually signed for Serie A side AS Roma in the summer of 2015, playing there until 2017.

Rüdiger's defending and intense playing style led him to sign for Chelsea in the summer of 2017, where he remained until 2022, winning almost every trophy available at club-level football. Furthermore, he had a lot of ups and downs at Stamford Bridge but the arrival of manager Thomas Tuchel in late 2020 was a very good turn of events for him as he reached his full potential.

It was in the summer of 2022 where Rüdiger made his greatest leap in his career by signing for Real Madrid when he has become somewhat of a cult favorite on that club.

Serge Gnabry

Serge Gnabry's case might be one of the most interesting on this list because of the many struggles he had to go through before cementing himself as one of the best attacking players in the game. This was shown from the get-go at youth level, where he was a part of the Stuttgart academy and couldn't sign for Bayern Munich because it was very far from home.

Ironically, as he reached adolescence, he signed for English Premier League side Arsenal in the summer of 2012 and played for their academy, building a reputation as a very promising young winger. However, once he reached the age to get opportunities, they were very scarce and a torrid loan spell at West Brom cemented his departure from the Emirates.

Gnabry was viewed as a flop at the time but he slowly built his career back up with Werder Bremen, which allowed him to sign for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2017. And after a very good loan deal with Hoffenheim in the 2017-18 season, he cemented himself as a key component of the Bayern Munich side, even going as far as being a major player in their 2019-20 treble season.

It is fair to say that it hasn't been easy for Gnabry but his success with Bayern is a very good example of determination and hard work in the sport.