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The total number may have gone down compared to recent years, but youngsters like Philipp Lahm, Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger are getting more and more attention in the Bundesliga.
A Bundesliga star is born: 19-year-old Philipp LahmVfB Stuttgart led the way last year as dwindling TV revenue and slow transfer markets left them with little choice other than to rely on local talent. This season they have been joined by others. 
"I am proud of my kindergarten," said 1860 Munich boss Karl-Heinz Wildmoser, whose team last weekend featured five youngsters.
According to Kicker sports magazine 8.77 percent of the players in the top flight were below the age of 22.
That is lower than the figures of the past five seasons (led by 10.67 percent in 2000/2001), but the fact that 43 players not older than 22 played last weekend is still impressive.
Tobias Rau: a new major talent for Bayern MunichSome youngsters have gained so much popularity over the past years that experts are already speaking of a second generation of newcomers. 
The first wave belonged to the likes of Stuttgart's Kevin Kuranyi and Andreas Hinkel plus 1860 Munich's Benjamin Lauth and Tobias Rau, who now plays at Bayern Munich alongside Schweinsteiger.
Speaking of "the boy-group Bundesliga", Kicker said that Cologne's Podolski, Stuttgart's Lahm and Dortmund's Salvatore Gambino were the spearhead of the latest line of talents.
"This is only the start. The trend will become even stronger in the coming years," said under-21 Germany coach Uli Stielike.
Stielike's team has gained considerably in strength due to the massive influx of talent and is out to qualify for the Athens Olympics at the upcoming European championships.
However, his best players such as Kuranyi, Hinkel, Lahm and Lauth have already been snatched up by national team coach Rudi Voeller.
*quote1*But Voeller said Stielike still had enough players around.
"They are all well-known players and have established themselves in the Bundesliga," Voeller said.
Voeller is happy with the situation because it can only enhance Germany's chances to do well with a balanced roster at the 2006 home World Cup.
SV Hamburg coach Klaus Toppmoeller said that "the younger one will be fielded if two players are equally strong", a view shared by Hertha Berlin's Hans Meyer.
"There is no proof that older players deal better with tricky situations than young ones," said Meyer, who fielded a pair of 20- year-olds, Sofian Chahed and Malik Fathi, during the weekend win over Stuttgart.
The two and many others may have similar feelings about their meteoric rise and none more so than SC Freiburg's Sascha Riether, the only player on his team to have completed every match this season.
"Sometimes I am simply surprised how young I still am," wondered the 20-year-old Riether.
February 2004
DPA
Subject: Life in Germany, football, Bundesliga, 1860 Munich, VfB Stuttgart, Bayern Munich
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