The Germany Olympics Team Stars Bayern Munich Should Be Monitoring

Germany entered the 2016 Summer Olympics football tournament with significant problems to overcome. The squad primed from the Under-21 national team was decimated in the weeks and months beforehand.

Stars like Joshua Kimmich, Leroy Sane, Julian Weigl and Jonathan Tah earned surprise nominations to the senior national team and went to Euro 2016, ruling them out of any possible participation in a second summer tournament.

Others spent the latter stages of the summer preparing for the season with their respective clubs: Per TZ (in German), Mahmoud Dahoud and Mitchell Weiser stayed at home as they were needed for key tournament qualification matches, while Kevin Volland and Timo Werner remained in Germany due to their having just signed contracts with new clubs.

Making matters worse, Maximilian Arnold was ruled out due to an appendectomy, and captain Leon Goretzka lasted just half an hour in the group-stage opener before a shoulder injury ended his Olympics. 

Germany didn't send the over-23 superstars that some other countries did. Brazil have Neymar at the competition; Germany have Sven and Lars Bender and Nils Petersen.

Yet, after a rough start that included draws with Mexico and South Korea, Germany have had an excellent Olympics campaign. And predictably, media attention has been drawn towards Bayern Munich as potential suitors for some of the Mannschaft's stand-out performers.

Transfer guru Gianluca Di Marzio reported on his website (h/t translator David Amoyal) on Thursday that Bayern have been monitoring the situation of Germany Olympics starlet and Hoffenheim man Jeremy Toljan.

Below, B/R takes a look at how Toljan would fit into the team and investigates several other Germany Olympics talents the Bavarians should consider in the immediate or long-term future.

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DiMarzio: #FCBayern are interested in Hoffenheim's full-back Jeremy Toljan who's currently at the #Olympics. pic.twitter.com/RUGIISAouP

— Home Bayern (@HomeBayern__) August 18, 2016"

Jeremy Toljan (Right-back, Hoffenheim)

By now, there can be no question that Bayern are in the market for a new right-back. The German giants are well aware of the importance of having a pair of quality full-backs and how difficult it can be to find replacements: After Bixente Lizarazu and Willy Sagnol, it took years for Bayern to find a second full-back to complement Philipp Lahm.

Lahm's contract runs until 2018, but he turns 33 years old in November, and Bayern were grooming Mitchell Weiser to be his eventual replacement before he left for Hertha BSC in 2015. Now there is no back-up, and Bayern are again looking at options. Mundo Deportivo (h/t Chris Davie of Goal) reported in March that Arsenal's Hector Bellerin was an option, but Bayern are just one of several clubs interested in the player.

Toljan is a player who has garnered much less international interest by this point in his career, but he's shown demonstrable quality.

Much like Lahm, he's equally capable on the left and right of defence, and he offers good balance with and without the ball. The 22-year-old is definitely an unproven quantity, but so was Kimmich a year ago, and the former Leipzig man developed brilliantly over the last year. Perhaps Toljan could do the same.

Julian Brandt (Winger, Bayer Leverkusen)

The first thing that stands out about Brandt's Olympics is the fact that he's given nine assists during the tournament. Four may have come in a 10-0 rout of Fiji, but he also contributed three in the 4-0 quarter-final dismantling of Portugal. And even though he didn't assist a goal against Nigeria, he played the passes that broke through the opposing defence for both of his side's goals in the semifinals.

Whereas Serge Gnabry has been a surprise star of the tournament after a season to forget on loan at West Bromwich Albion, Brandt's tournament is just a continuation of the magnificent form he built towards the end of the 2015-16 campaign. He directly contributed to at least one goal in each of Leverkusen's last nine matches of the season, scoring six and assisting five times.

Bayern have been monitoring Brandt for a long time, dating back to 2013. Back then, his father and agent told Bild (in German) that Bayern had their eyes on his son, who always has been ahead of the developmental curve: In 2012, he was included in the German Under-17 team with a class of 1995-borns that had no shortage of talent in his position, including Goretzka, Max Meyer and Marc Stendera.

Now, more physically developed than before, he looks to be a complete package in attack: A marvellous dribbler with great acceleration and agility, reliable finishing talent and sublime playmaking vision.

With Franck Ribery (33 years of age) and Arjen Robben (32), there is need for new talent in Munich. Bayern have quality in Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman, but Brandt looks to be a superstar in the making and could prove to be an inspired signing in a year or so.

Niklas Sule (Centre-back, Hoffenheim)

Bayern may have just signed Mats Hummels this summer, but that doesn't mean their central defence is sorted for the long-term. The newcomer and his partner, Jerome Boateng, will turn 28 years of age before year's end. Both surely have several more seasons of top football in them, but by the time they surpass their prime, Niklas Sule will be just entering his.

Already, Sule is proving to be an excellent interior defender. At six feet, five inches in height and with his broad shoulders, he's built like a tank. He rarely puts a foot wrong in the challenge, his tackling being near-immaculate.

What's more, Sule seems to have developed his passing game very well in recent months; several times during the Olympics he's played Hummels-style through-passes to wide-playing teammates cutting inside from the wing.

Sule definitely isn't a player for Bayern just yet; the German giants have too many options as it stands, and he needs to play and develop. But in a few years, he might be just the person to take over for Hummels or Boateng.

@Mr_Bundesliga