Gnabry's Bayern Journey: A Fight for the No. 10 Role

Serge Gnabry spent the summer of 2025 rewriting his Bayern story. He turned 30 on 14 July, walked back into pre-season as a man on the market, and walked out of it as Vincent Kompany’s No. 10. Not long ago, the club seemed more likely to cash in on him than build around him. Circumstances changed. So did his status.

Part of it was Gnabry. Part of it was the landscape around him.

Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Díaz were locked in as the front three pillars of Kompany’s 4-2-3-1. Behind them, the central attacking slot was suddenly wide open. Jamal Musiala, the player Bayern had long earmarked as their creative heartbeat, was still recovering from a fibula fracture and expected to be out for months. Lennart Karl was an exciting academy product, but no one inside the club had realistically mapped out a meteoric rise on that timescale. Nicolas Jackson only landed on Deadline Day at the start of September and needed time to settle into the demands of Munich.

So, by autumn, the choice in big games was blunt: Gnabry or nothing.

Kompany backed the experienced German. In the marquee fixtures, Gnabry started more often than not. Karl grew into a serious alternative, Jackson got his chances and largely let them slip, and Musiala finally returned in January. Even then, Gnabry’s name stayed near the top of the team sheet when it mattered most.

Now, the dynamic has flipped again.

A four-way fight behind Bayern’s front three

The only certainties in Bayern’s attack remain Kane, Olise and Díaz. Everything behind them is up for grabs. One position, four contenders: Musiala, Gnabry, Karl and €50 million signing Ismael Saibari. All of them have a realistic claim to minutes. None of them has a guaranteed ticket for the season’s defining nights.

The calendar is brutal. Kompany will have to rotate hard. That doesn’t solve the question that really matters in Munich: who starts when the stakes spike?

On paper, Musiala should be the natural answer. He wears the No. 10. He is one of the club’s top earners. Bayern have long pushed him as the face of their future, a cornerstone rather than a complementary piece. Right now, he is far from that role.

Since his comeback in January, Musiala has struggled to hit his old level. The disappointment of the World Cup lingered, followed by the removal of a metal plate from his foot. Then came the worrying images this summer: collapses during friendlies against RB Leipzig and 1. FC Heidenheim that sparked real concern about whether the 23-year-old can withstand the relentless intensity at the top.

Medical clarity has offered a degree of reassurance. Musiala has been diagnosed with absence epilepsy, a condition that, as neurologist Dr Regina Becker explained to SPOX, does not rule out a career in elite football in principle. The diagnosis has not pushed Musiala towards a pause.

In a widely discussed Instagram statement, he made his stance clear: in close and regular consultation with experts, he wants to face the challenge and, with the green light from neurological specialists, continue with his everyday life and his passion for football. No sabbatical. No stepping away. He wants to play.

Saibari arrives with a head start

While Musiala fights to regain rhythm and certainty, Gnabry and Karl have been on their own recovery paths. Both missed the World Cup with muscle injuries and spent large stretches of pre-season working alone, away from the main group. They are now being eased back into full training.

There is optimism that the pair could already feature in Saturday’s Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund. If that comes too soon, the Bundesliga opener against VfB Stuttgart the following Friday is seen as the more realistic target for their full return to contention.

Saibari, though, is the man currently in pole position.

The Morocco international arrived on the back of an impressive World Cup, only to be halted by a torn muscle fibre. That delay is over. At 25, he looks fully up to speed, has impressed in his first two friendlies and supplied an assist in the 3-1 win over Leipzig. Against direct rivals who are either just back from injury or still searching for their old sharpness, Saibari stands out as the fittest option. Right now, that matters.

He starts this battle for Bayern’s vacant attacking slot with a clear edge.

Kids knocking, but a deeper squad blocks the door

While the main quartet were missing, others used pre-season to plant a flag. Loan returnee Arijon Ibrahimovic, 20, caught the eye. So did academy products Tim Binder, 19, and Maycon Cardozo, 17. Each of them showed enough to suggest that Karl’s rapid ascent last year may not be a one-off fairy tale from the campus.

The pathway, though, is narrower this time. Bayern’s pool of established options behind the front line is deeper and more expensive. That makes another Karl-style breakthrough significantly less likely in the short term, even if the talent is there.

So Kompany walks into the new season with a luxury and a dilemma. A superstar trident is fixed. Behind them, a €50 million signing, a returning cult figure, a homegrown prodigy and a newly vulnerable face of the project are all chasing the same patch of grass.

Somebody will have to sit. Somebody will have to accept cameos. And somebody, sooner rather than later, will grab that No. 10 role and refuse to let it go.