Joshua Zirkzee: From Promise to Periphery at Manchester United
Joshua Zirkzee was supposed to be different.
When he burst through at Bayern Munich as a teenager – late goals, big-stage poise, the easy swagger of someone who thought pressure was for other people – the storyline wrote itself. Here was the next elegant No. 9 from the academy conveyor belt, a striker with soft feet and a hard edge.
Six and a half years on, that script lies in pieces.
From promise to the periphery at Old Trafford
Now almost 25, Zirkzee arrived at Manchester United in 2024 as a statement signing, the kind of move that was meant to turn potential into permanence. Instead, he has slipped into a familiar pattern: flashes of class, then long spells watching from the bench.
This season the slide has become brutal. Since Ruben Amorim’s dismissal and Michael Carrick’s appointment in January, Zirkzee’s role has shrunk to a footnote. Across ten Premier League matches under Carrick, he has played a total of 28 minutes. No goals. No assists. Barely a footprint on games that have defined United’s revival.
The irony is sharp. While Zirkzee sits, United surge. Those ten games have yielded 23 points. Third place in the table. A clear path back towards the Champions League for the first time since 2023. Carrick has tightened the rotation, found his core, and his forwards are responding.
- Benjamin Sesko has five goals.
- Bryan Mbeumo has three goals and two assists.
- Matheus Cunha has three goals and three assists.
They are producing. Zirkzee is not. In a side humming under a new manager, he looks like the spare part.
An old warning, still ringing true
The question with Zirkzee has never been whether he can play. It has always been whether he can do it often enough, ruthlessly enough, to live at the top.
The early Bayern years already hinted at the tension. While his dream debut with the first team captured headlines, his numbers with Bayern’s third-tier side painted a cooler picture: 13 league appearances without a goal, just two assists. Even then, the concern was not talent, but edge.
Jochen Sauer, then head of Bayern’s youth academy and a key figure in bringing the striker from Feyenoord in 2017, sounded the alarm in spring 2020. “Joshua is sometimes the sort of player who only jumps as high as he absolutely has to,” he told kicker. Sauer spoke of a missing “hunger and the will to work hard and force the goal,” and the need to pull the youngster “out of his comfort zone from time to time.”
The words have aged uncomfortably well.
Even in Bayern’s treble-winning season, interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, the pattern held. Zirkzee scored twice more for the first team but never became central. He played no part in the Champions League final tournament in Portugal. When chances came under Hansi Flick the following season, they were brief. Flick’s public verdict was blunt: “Talent alone isn’t always enough.” He praised the striker’s quality, insisted everyone believed he could play in the Bundesliga, then went straight to the core: mentality, attitude, the “unconditional will” to show it.
Flick trusted Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting as Robert Lewandowski’s understudy instead. That decision said as much as any quote.
Loans, lessons, and a rare high in Brussels
From there, Zirkzee’s Bayern story unravelled. A loan to Parma in Serie A during the winter window brought neither stability nor momentum. He struggled to nail down a starting spot, then picked up an injury. Four appearances, no impact, and Parma finished bottom, relegated with a whimper.
The next chapter, in Belgium, finally showed what happens when a coach builds around him. At RSC Anderlecht in 2021/22, Vincent Kompany handed him the keys to the attack and refused to look away. Zirkzee started as first-choice centre-forward and stayed there.
The numbers exploded. He played in 47 of a possible 48 matches and racked up 31 goal contributions – 18 goals, 13 assists. This was the version of Zirkzee scouts had imagined: a 1.93-metre forward who could link play, finish, and create, all with a calmness that bordered on casual.
Zirkzee later spoke glowingly about Kompany in an interview with the English Mirror, calling that year “very important” for his development and praising the manager for explaining “the little details” and ensuring he played consistently. The admiration was real.
But Kompany’s patience was not infinite. A viral video from his Anderlecht tenure showed the Belgian furious with Zirkzee’s attitude and body language. Even on his best stage, the same questions circled back: how badly does he want to dominate?
Bayern cash in, Bologna believe, United spend big
When Julian Nagelsmann took over at Bayern, the answer in Munich was clear. Despite the Anderlecht season, Nagelsmann did not see a role for him. Bayern sold Zirkzee to Bologna in 2022 for €8.5 million, with a structure that revealed how much they still rated his market value.
According to Sky, Bayern added a €1 million bonus for every 25 matches he plays, a buy-back option, and a hefty resale clause. Financially, it was shrewd business. From an initial training compensation fee of €100,000, Zirkzee would eventually bring Bayern more than €30 million in transfer income.
Hasan Salihamidzic, then sporting director, drove that deal. President Herbert Hainer praised him for keeping “an eye on the economic conditions,” while Lothar Matthäus handed him “top marks for the signings – and a gold star for the sales.” Zirkzee, more than most, underlined that compliment.
On the pitch, Bologna gave him a platform and patience. After early adjustment problems, he began to thrive. The Italian press warmed to him, sometimes raved about him, as he helped Bologna to a stunning Champions League qualification in 2024. In Serie A’s more tactical, slower rhythm, his touch and intelligence shone.
That form triggered Manchester United. Not renowned for hunting bargains, they paid €42.5 million, with half flowing back to Bayern thanks to the resale clause. For Zirkzee, the contract was lucrative. For United, it was a big bet that his Bologna peak would translate to the Premier League.
So far, it has not.
Under three managers at Old Trafford – Erik ten Hag, Amorim, Carrick – he has never truly nailed down a starting role. There have been neat touches, the odd moment of flair, but the old accusation remains: not enough end product, not often enough.
Across all competitions, he scored seven goals in his debut United season. This campaign, he has added only two more. His entire professional career now stands at 45 goals. For a forward of his profile and price, that number lags behind the expectation that has followed him since Munich.
Critics who argued he lacked the dynamism for English football see their case strengthened with every quiet cameo.
A crossroads, again
All of which leads to another summer of decisions. Zirkzee’s contract runs until 2029, but a move at the end of the season looks increasingly likely. United’s current form without him, and Carrick’s trust in other forwards, leave little room for a late-season rescue act.
On paper, a return to Bayern has a certain romance. Harry Kane’s backup role is expected to open up, and Kompany now sits in the Bayern dugout, the coach who once got the best version of Zirkzee. The reunion storyline writes itself.
Reality points elsewhere. Italy suits him. His reputation in Serie A remains strong from his Bologna days, and the pathway to a guaranteed starting spot is clearer there than in Munich, where Kane dominates the centre-forward position.
Links to AS Roma and Juventus surfaced as early as the winter window, both clubs fighting for Champions League qualification and both in need of attacking refinement. AC Milan and Inter have also been mentioned as potential destinations. None of those rumours are confirmed, but the logic is obvious: in Serie A, his game looks more natural, his ceiling higher.
For the Netherlands, the stakes are rising too. A member of the Euro 2024 squad, Zirkzee has not been called up for almost a year and a half. His international prospects have stalled in parallel with his club career.
The next move will not just define his club future. It will decide whether he becomes a permanent “what if” or finally grows into the forward so many coaches, from Sauer to Kompany to Flick, believed he could be.
At 25, time is not gone. But it is no longer on pause.
