Rocket science and Leroy Sané; Former Celtic kid on life at Bayern Munich

By Euan Davidson

November 17, 2021

There was certainly a lot of surprise when Celtic Academy talent Liam Morrison joined Bayern Munich.

In 2019, the promising centre-back had been making strides in the Celtic set-up. Then, the Bundesliga giants came calling. It was a move that Morrison just couldn’t turn down.

Compared to Mats Hummels [Bundesliga], Morrison is a tall, strong centre-back with decent technique. Having already starred at youth international level for Scotland, Hoffenheim were also keen on the Bhoys youngster.

And what a two years it’s been. Morrison, along with another former Celt, Barry Hepburn, have been steadily progressing through the storied club’s youth ranks.

And despite being a whizz in Mandarin, for some reason, Morrison explained his biggest challenges thus far; the German language, and taking on world-class players in training.

Morrison told the BBC:

“I used to do languages in school. I’d do Chinese and be amazing at it, but this language is honestly like rocket science at times. I can understand most of it, but speaking it is a whole new challenge.

“[Then in training] I was marking Leroy Sane. I had just come back from an injury as well, and he tore me apart. But that’s another reason why I wanted to come here – if you are training with the top players, you’re only going to get better.

“Going to a big club is brilliant. They’ve got the big name and you can say you play for them. But if there’s no pathway, there’s no point. It needs to be the right plan for you to develop and become a better player.”

No doubt, Celtic have lost a talent to Bayern Munich

It’ll be fascinating to see how Morrison progresses at Bayern Munich. A club with such enormous resources can bring in world-class centre-backs as and when they want to.

They do, however, also believe strongly in bringing through academy players. In recent years, Thomas Müller, Phillip Lahm and plenty more have made the grade. Jamal Musiala, a former youth team-mate of Morrison’s, has featured for the first-team this season.

It’s exciting, for sure. From a Scottish perspective. In terms of Celtic, both he and Barry Hepburn, who also joined Bayern Munich, will be “What If?” stories in years to come.

We’ve seen other promising talents join Academies elsewhere, like Josh Adam [Sun] and Vincent Angelini. That said, there are still plenty of talents in the Celtic Academy. Bosun Lawal, Tobi Oluwayemi, Adam Brooks, Owen Moffat and Rocco Vata look like genuinely excellent prospects.

Maybe, then, this is a case where we can bemoan losing a talent, but understand that Celtic gave him a platform. The same platform as other players who will stay at our club, or make us a profit in the long-term.

Here’s hoping Liam Morrison can make an impact at Bayern Munich, learn the language, and keep Leroy Sané quiet in training!

Read more: Ange Postecoglou raves about the Celtic experience in new Australian radio interview