Six and a half years on from that electric breakthrough in Munich, Joshua Zirkzee’s career is still stuck in the waiting lounge. The Dutch forward, now approaching 25, made what was billed as a defining move to Manchester United in 2024. It was supposed to be the step into the elite. Instead, it has become a lesson in how quickly promise can stall.
The numbers tell the story brutally. This season, his place in the pecking order has slid from “rotation option” to “afterthought.” Since Ruben Amorim’s dismissal and Michael Carrick’s appointment in January, Zirkzee has played just 28 minutes in ten Premier League games. No goals. No assists. Barely a footprint.
United, crucially, are winning without him. Carrick has tightened the structure, found his core group and stuck with it. Ten league matches, 23 points, third in the table and back on track for a return to the Champions League for the first time since 2023. In attack, Benjamin Sesko has scored five, Bryan Mbeumo has three goals and two assists, Matheus Cunha three goals and three assists. They deliver. They decide games. Zirkzee watches.
Early Warnings Behind the Hype
This is not a sudden collapse. The warning signs were there even when the hype was loudest.
His first steps at Bayern were pure fairytale: a teenager scoring late winners for the German giants, a lanky forward with flair and composure who seemed to glide rather than run. The narrative wrote itself. But beneath those headlines, his everyday output told a different story. In the third-tier Bayern reserve side, where he played most of his minutes at the time, he went 13 league games without a goal, contributing just two assists.
The gap between the highlight reel and the weekly grind was already wide.
Inside the club, doubts surfaced early. In spring 2020, Jochen Sauer, then head of Bayern’s academy and the man who had pushed to sign the Feyenoord prospect in 2017, sounded a quiet alarm. Zirkzee, he said, was sometimes the sort of player “who only jumps as high as he absolutely has to.” He needed more hunger, more willingness to work and “force the goal,” and he had to be taken out of his comfort zone.
The treble-winning 2019/20 season, interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, underlined the point. Zirkzee added two more goals for the first team, but his role shrank as the stakes rose. He did not feature at all in the Champions League final tournament in Portugal.
The following year, Hansi Flick went public with his frustration. “Talent alone isn’t always enough,” the then Bayern coach said, choosing to trust veteran Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting as Robert Lewandowski’s understudy. Flick insisted Bayern still believed in Zirkzee’s quality to play in the Bundesliga, but stressed mentality, attitude and the “unconditional will” to show it. The message was unmistakable: the door was open, but the player had to walk through it himself.
He never quite did. His time in Munich faded away, rather than exploded.
Loans, Lessons and a Belgian Peak
The first loan, to Parma Calcio in Serie A, became a dead end. Zirkzee struggled to secure a regular starting spot, then suffered an injury. Four appearances, no impact, and a relegation as Parma sank to the bottom of the table. It was a harsh introduction to the realities of a struggling side and a league that demands intensity.
Then came Anderlecht, and for a while it looked like the turning point.
In 2021/22, under Vincent Kompany, Zirkzee finally found a coach who built around him. He started as first-choice centre-forward, played 47 of a possible 48 matches and produced the best season of his career: 18 goals and 13 assists, 31 direct goal involvements. The talent that Bayern had invested in suddenly looked fully formed.
Zirkzee himself later spoke glowingly about Kompany, telling the English Mirror that the Belgian had explained “so much” about the game and its details, and that the year under him was crucial for his development. Kompany, crucially, also ensured he played constantly.
Yet even there, the underlying theme did not disappear. Kompany’s standards were high, and he did not always like what he saw. An angry touchline video of him tearing into Zirkzee’s attitude and body language went viral when Kompany took over at Bayern, a reminder that the praise always came with a challenge attached.
Bayern Cash In, Bologna Rebuilds Him
Back in Munich, a new coach, Julian Nagelsmann, took a look and passed. Despite Zirkzee’s strong numbers in Belgium, Nagelsmann did not see him as part of his plans. Bayern sold him to Bologna in 2022 for €8.5 million, with a smart package attached: a further €1 million for every 25 games played, a buy-back option and a lucrative resale clause.
From Bayern’s perspective, it was shrewd business. From Zirkzee’s, it was another restart.
After some early adaptation issues in Serie A, he clicked. Bologna’s football suited him: technical, patient, with space to drop off the line and combine. His touch, vision and link-up play flourished. The Italian press warmed to him, sometimes raving about his elegance and intelligence between the lines. By 2024, he was a key figure in a remarkable run that ended with Bologna qualifying for the Champions League.
His reputation in Italy soared. So did his price.
Manchester United, rarely shy when it comes to spending, stepped in. They paid €42.5 million, with around half of that flowing back to Munich thanks to the sell-on clause. For a player once signed for a training compensation fee of just €100,000, Zirkzee had now generated more than €30 million in transfer income for Bayern. Hasan Salihamidzic, the sporting director who had insisted on that hefty resale share, saw the move hailed as one of his biggest transfer coups. President Herbert Hainer praised his eye for the economic side, and Lothar Matthäus handed him “top marks for the signings – and a gold star for the sales.”
Financially, everyone involved could smile. On the pitch, the story has been far less flattering.
United: Flickers of Class, Not Enough Fire
Under three different managers at Old Trafford – Erik ten Hag, Amorim and now Carrick – Zirkzee has never quite nailed down a starting role. There have been glimpses: a clever touch here, a subtle lay-off there, the odd moment of finesse that hints at the player he could still become. But the fundamental criticism has not shifted.
He does not decide enough games.
In his debut season for United, he scored seven goals in all competitions. This campaign, he has added just two more. Across his entire professional career, he stands at 45 goals. For a forward with his technical gifts and the clubs on his CV, that is a modest return.
Those who argued from the outset that the Premier League might not suit him – that he lacked the explosive dynamism and relentless aggression demanded of top-level attackers in England – feel vindicated. The league moves quickly. Defenders close space fast. Forwards who float on the fringes tend to get swallowed.
With his contract running until 2029, United are not under pressure to sell. Yet the trajectory points in one direction. A summer move looks likely.
What Comes Next: Munich Dream, Italian Reality
On paper, a return to Bayern carries a certain romantic logic. The club may soon need a new backup to Harry Kane, and Kompany, now in charge in Munich, knows Zirkzee better than most. The idea of mentor and pupil reunited at a European heavyweight is an easy one to sketch.
Reality, though, leans towards Italy. Serie A remembers the Bologna version of Zirkzee, the one who orchestrated attacks and charmed crowds. There, he would have a far better chance of starting regularly than in Munich, where Kane blocks the central role and the pressure to deliver instantly is unforgiving.
The market has already stirred. Rumours of interest from AS Roma and Juventus surfaced in winter, both clubs chasing Champions League spots and in need of attacking craft. AC Milan and Inter have also been linked. These are not speculative mid-table lifelines. They are serious, high-level platforms.
For Zirkzee, the stakes are clear. His international career has stalled. Despite being part of the Netherlands’ 2024 European Championship squad, he has not been called up for the national team in almost 18 months. Another season on the fringes at United, and that door could close for good.
Italy, by contrast, offers rhythm, responsibility and a league where his technical profile has already worked. It offers the chance not just to play, but to matter.
The talent that once dazzled Bayern’s academy and briefly lit up the Allianz Arena has not vanished. The question, as he approaches what should be his prime years, is whether Joshua Zirkzee is finally ready to jump higher than he absolutely has to – or whether football will remember him as the forward who always promised more than he truly delivered.
