Baum's Journey: From Tanzania to Bundesliga Stardom

She was four years old when her life changed for the first time.

Born in Tanzania to a German father and a Tanzanian mother, Baum left East Africa for northern Germany with a ball already at her feet and a shadow already at her back. Her older brother Dennis, the one who first dragged her into endless kickabouts, died in a car accident at 17. He has been gone for years now, but he is stitched into everything she does.

His initials are on her boots. Tape on her wrist carries his name and a quote. “That way, he's always with me,” she told Die Welt. “I wish he was here and could see everything I do.” Every sprint, every dribble, every shot is, in part, for him.

From village pitches to HSV

Once in Germany, the path began in the most ordinary way. Local club MTV Ahrensbok, then TSV Pansdorf. At Pansdorf she was the only girl, a familiar story for many of the game’s modern stars, but she forced the issue with talent and stubbornness. Hamburg soon noticed.

HSV brought her into their youth academy as a teenager, and in August 2022, still only 15, Baum signed her first-team contract, tying her to the club until 2025. On paper, it looked like the start of a long Hamburg chapter. In reality, it became a three-year launchpad.

Those three years changed Hamburg. Baum helped drag the club back into the Frauen-Bundesliga for the first time since 2012. Her first season brought promotion to the second tier, and she then played a key role as HSV climbed again into the top flight and reached the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal in the same campaign. For a teenager, that’s not just promise. That’s impact.

When the contract expired, she walked away on a free and joined RB Leipzig. No fee, but a major loss for a club she had helped haul up the ladder.

Fast-tracked through Germany’s ranks

While she was unsettling full-backs in the senior game, Baum was also moving through Germany’s youth system at a pace that tells its own story.

• Under-16s at 14.
• Under-17s at 15.
• By 17, she was playing in all five games as Germany reached the quarter-finals of the U20 World Cup.

Recently, she has been a regular with the U23s despite being just 19. Coaches keep pushing her up an age group because she keeps coping, then thriving.

The club game took note. So did the giants.

Last summer, according to kicker, Bayern Munich – the club she supported as a child – circled. It would have been the fairytale. Instead, she chose something more pragmatic: Leipzig. After four years at Hamburg, she wanted “a fresh start” and saw in Leipzig a club whose ambition matched her own, but whose squad was not yet stacked with established stars. Crucially, it was a place where she could actually play.

She did more than that.

A breakout year in Leipzig

Leipzig had only just arrived in the Bundesliga in 2023. They were learning the league, taking their bumps. In that environment, Baum did not hide. Only three players in the squad logged more league minutes than the teenager last season.

She finished as Leipzig’s joint-top scorer in the league with six goals and added two assists in 23 starts, in a side that ended up 10th in a 14-team division. Those numbers, in isolation, are solid. In context – a first top-flight season, a mid-table team, a teenager still finding her way – they are eye-catching.

So was the way she did it. Baum’s wide play became a weekly problem for defenders. She runs at players with conviction, not curiosity. She wants to hurt you. Beat you. Get past you and make something happen. That directness, laced with real speed and close control, has made her one of the most talked-about young attackers in Germany.

By the end of the campaign, the transfer links were inevitable.

Arsenal move on the horizon?

Now, the queue is forming. Bayern are back in the conversation. Barcelona, the reigning European champions and a team Baum has said she enjoys watching, are interested. Manchester United, London City and Lyon – beaten by Barça in the Champions League final last month – are all watching closely.

Bild reports that Arsenal currently lead the race.

The Gunners have trimmed their squad heavily in recent weeks. England international Beth Mead is among those to have gone, leaving for Manchester City and tearing a hole in Arsenal’s options out wide. Head coach Renee Slegers needs fresh firepower on the flanks. In Baum, she appears to see a profile that fits: quick, brave on the ball, able to play on either side and attack space at speed.

If you watch Baum for five minutes, one trait jumps out. She is relentlessly direct. She wants to turn, face the defender and go. No half-measures. Her pace amplifies that approach, her trickery gives it teeth and her two-footedness makes her a nightmare to read. Show her inside and she can cut in to shoot or slide a pass. Force her down the line and she can still create from the outside.

She ended last season joint-seventh in the Bundesliga for chances created, despite playing for a team that finished 10th. That says something about her decision-making and vision, even at 19.

A forward built for the modern game

There is more than chaos to her game. Baum strikes the ball superbly from range, especially with her left foot. She times late runs into dangerous areas, reading the game well enough to arrive where defenders least want to see her. Out of possession, she works. Hard. Her energy in the press stands out, an important trait for any modern wide forward.

Those who have coached her talk about attitude as much as ability. Marwin Bolz, her coach at Hamburg, called her “determined to improve… not just in terms of her soccer skills, but also in her physical conditioning and mental toughness,” in an interview with the Hamburger Morgenpost. It’s the kind of line that sticks, because it matches what you see on the pitch: a player chasing better, not just glory.

Of course, she is not the finished product. No 19-year-old is.

Her pressing, while enthusiastic, still needs refining. When to jump, when to hold, when to funnel play – these are details that experience will sharpen. The same goes for her choices on the ball: when to attack the full-back one-on-one and when to slow the game, recycle possession and help build more patiently. At Leipzig, a side still establishing itself, the temptation to attack every transition is understandable.

She can drift in and out of games, too. That tendency is common in young forwards, and it often fades as they adjust to the physical and mental demands of elite football. She has only one season of top-flight experience; the step up in consistency usually follows.

Echoes of Kerolin and Paralluelo

Watch Baum closely and certain comparisons come to mind. Her close control, her tricks in tight spaces and her appetite to drive at defenders echo Kerolin, the Manchester City star who can play across the front line and always looks to force the issue. Baum, slightly taller, has the frame to become even more imposing physically.

When she darts inside and unleashes from distance, there are shades of Salma Paralluelo. The Barcelona forward underlined her own threat in the Champions League final, scoring a stunning third and then a fourth as Barça pulled away. Baum is starting to lean on that same inside-cut-and-shoot pattern, though she remains more of a classic winger than Paralluelo, who has often been used centrally.

These are not like-for-like comparisons, but they offer a glimpse of the ceiling.

Is Arsenal the right next step?

Given she has just one Bundesliga season behind her, the next move is huge. For a long time, a switch to Arsenal might have raised questions. The club has recruited several young players in recent years – Kathrine Kuhl, Rosa Kafaji, Gio Queiroz among them – and then struggled to give them sustained first-team roles.

There are signs that era might be ending. Smilla Holmberg’s progress this season suggests a shift under Slegers, who only took the job permanently in January of last year. Arsenal now look more willing to trust youth, but in a structured way.

Tactically, the fit is intriguing. Slegers rotates her wide players heavily, both between games and within them, often making like-for-like changes around the hour mark. For Baum, that could mean gradual exposure to the Women’s Super League, tailored to opponents and game states. It’s the kind of environment where a young winger can learn without being overwhelmed.

Yet nothing is agreed. Barça, Lyon and Bayern all offer different kinds of development and all three have strong records with young talent. London City or Manchester United might be able to promise more guaranteed minutes from day one.

The choice now sits with Baum and her inner circle. It is a career-defining decision, but those around her describe a grounded, level-headed character.

“My goal isn't to be a star, I mainly want to be happy with what I do,” she told Die Welt earlier this year. She even brushed aside talk of the next senior World Cup as a short-term aim, instead pointing to the home European Championship in 2029 as her target. That kind of long-term horizon, combined with her talent, suggests a player thinking beyond the next headline.

Wherever she lands, one thing feels certain: when she pulls on that next shirt, the initials on her boots and the tape on her wrist will be the same. And somewhere, on a new stage, a 19-year-old winger will keep running at defenders as if she has been doing it her whole life – because she has.