Lucas Copado: Who is the Bayern Munich teenager with a UEFA Champions League-winning uncle?
He is 19, plays for Bayern Munich and you might just know a thing or two about his uncle - but who is Lucas Copado? bundesliga.com fills in the blanks...
Lucas Copado
Age: 19
Club: Bayern Munich
Position: Forward
Country: Germany (3 U18 caps/one goal) / Spain
Key stats
Copado started out at the Unterhaching youths in the Munich suburbs, before being recruited by Bayern at the age of 12. Firing his way up the ranks, the 6'0" forward found his range in the 2020/21 U17-Bundesliga Süd/Südwest, scoring nine goals in 17 appearances, as well as producing three assists.
Having been promoted to the U19s ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, the naturally right-footed Copado scored the winning goal for Bayern's reserves in a summer friendly against newly promoted Bundesliga outfit Greuther Fürth. He made his professional debut soon after, playing in the second half of a friendly defeat to Cologne, in Julian Nagelsmann's first game as Bayern head coach, and has three goals and five assists to show for his first 13 Regionalliga outings for the reserves.
Copado has earned six Germany caps at U15-18s level, but Latin roots mean he could be eligible to represent Spain at international level.
Plays a bit like: Miroslav Klose
Like any striker worth his salt, Copado is in his element in the opposition penalty area. He's not the quickest, strongest, or the tallest of forwards - but neither was Miroslav Klose. He still ended a storied career as the FIFA World Cup’s all-time top scorer with 16 goals, Germany’s record marksman (71 in 137 games) and with over 250 goals at club level, including 121 in the Bundesliga, to his name...
Did you know?
Copado's uncle is former Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic, after all.
An overlapping right-back or midfield terrier during his playing days, Salihamidzic was at Hamburg for the first six years of his football career before moving to Bayern in 1998. Six Bundesliga titles, four DFB Cups and a UEFA Champions League triumph in 2000/01 followed. Salihamidzic became sporting director in 2017, and is credited with bringing the likes of Alphonso Davies, Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sane to the club. He left Bayern at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Copado's father and grandfather also played in the Bundesliga - the latter for Bayern - while his cousin, Hasan's son, Nick, is a member of the current U19s team.
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What they're saying
"Lucas has real quality and the right mentality." - Danny Schwarz, Bayern's reserve-team coach, and Copado's former U17s mentor
"He was one of the handful of players who put in a good shift." - Nagelsmann on Copado's debut against Cologne
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