By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Bayern Munich's pursuit of Callum Hudson-Odoi is the latest example of German clubs seeking to snare promising talents developed by English Premier League outfits.
The race for youngsters raised in Britain is causing fierce competition among German clubs, with RB Leipzig also said to have joined the race for the youngster.
Signing young English talents who have found their paths to the first team blocked back home has become something of a trend in the Bundesliga for several reasons.
Thanks to a slew of lucrative TV deals, Premier League clubs have considerably more financial resources than those of other global football leagues, with most Bundesliga clubs unable to compete on the same level. But while this has increased the Premier League's attractiveness for top international stars, it makes it harder for young prospects to break through into the first team .
One notable example is Jadon Sancho, who has blazed something of a trail in the Bundesliga for English youngsters.
The 18-year-old has thrived since joining Borussia Dortmund in 2017 for seven million euros from Manchester City's youth team, being voted Bundesliga player of the month in October 2018 and receiving his first caps for England.
Sancho's success at Dortmund increases the pressure on their rivals to find their own Premier League bargain. And the Englishman's achievements may have reinforced Bayern's decision to pursue Hudson-Odoi, currently of Chelsea.
The Bavarians had also bid for Sancho in 2017, but he elected to move to Dortmund amid concerns over the playing time he would have received at Bayern, who had stars like Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben still firmly ensconced in the first team.
Now Bayern are going all-out in the race for Hudson-Odoi, having raised their bid to 35 million pounds.
Sancho's success in Germany has shown English youngsters that it may be easier to move abroad to bypass the bottleneck back home, with many aware that nothing beats playing time when it comes to a player's development. From the perspective of German clubs and English youngsters, both sides stand to benefit from such an arrangement.
This also extends to players who have chosen to move to Germany as a temporary measure, such as Arsenal forward Reiss Nelson, currently on a season-long loan at TSG Hoffenheim, and Everton's Ademola Lookman, who spent half of 2018 at RB Leipzig.
Hudson-Odoi has become something of a priority for Bayern as the Bavarians have failed to develop much of their own talent in recent years. In summer 2017, the 2013 treble winners opened a new talent campus worth over 70 million euros.
It will take a while for Bayern's new facility to produce young talents capable of playing at the very top level. Until then, the side is trying to benefit from the fruits of the Premier League.
