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Joshua Walter Kimmich (; born 8 February 1995) is a German professional footballer who plays as a right-back or defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and captains the Germany national team. Known for his versatility, aggression and playmaking ability, Kimmich has been compared with former Bayern Munich and Germany captain Philipp Lahm.Multiple sources:
After coming through RB Leipzig's youth academy, Kimmich began playing for the club's first team in 2013. Two years later, he joined Bayern Munich. In the 2019–20 season, he won the continental treble with Bayern Munich (UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal) and was included in the UEFA Team of the Year.
Kimmich scored his first goal of the 2014–15 season in a 3–2 victory against Union Berlin on 1 March 2015. He finished the 2014–15 season with two goals in 29 appearances.
Kimmich left the club with a tally of three goals in 53 league appearances for the club.
Kimmich ended his first season at Bayern having made 23 league appearances of which 15 were starts. He also played the full 120 minutes in Bayern's 2016 DFB-Pokal Final defeat of Borussia Dortmund at the Berlin Olympiastadion on 21 May.
Kimmich started the 2016–17 season by coming on as a substitute in a 2–0 win against Borussia Dortmund in the 2016 DFL-Supercup. On 9 September, he scored his first goal for FC Bayern in a 2–0 Bundesliga, away win at FC Schalke 04. Four days later, he scored his first two Champions League goals in a 5–0 home win against FC Rostov. Kimmich scored a late winning goal in the 88th minute in a 1–0 away victory over Hamburger SV. He finished the 2016–17 season with nine goals in forty appearances.
On 12 August, Kimmich started the 2018–19 season by playing in the German Super Cup and also won the title as his side defeated Eintracht Frankfurt with a 5–0 victory. The following week, on 18 August 2018, Kimmich played in the 1–0 win against SV Drochtersen/Assel in the first round of the German Cup. Kimmich played in the opening match of the Bundesliga season against 1899 Hoffenheim on 24 August 2018. Bayern won the match 3–1. Kimmich's first goal of the season came against Hannover 96 on 15 December 2018. He made his 100th league appearance for the club on 9 February 2019 during a 3–1 win over rivals, Schalke.
Kimmich played every single minute in all 34 matches in the Bundesliga. In those 34 matches, Kimmich scored two goals and finished second in the league with 13 assists. On 14 August 2020, Kimmich scored one goal and provided an assist in an 8–2 win over FC Barcelona in the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League quarter-final. On 23 August 2020, Kimmich made an important assist for the winning goal against Paris Saint-Germain by Kingsley Coman in the final, to be his first Champions League title along with his teammate Serge Gnabry, another VfB Stuttgart academy product.
On 23 August 2021, Kimmich signed a new contract with Bayern, keeping him at the club until 2025. On 24 January 2023, he scored a goal from a distance of 25 meters, to equalize the match 1–1 against 1. FC Köln in the 90th minute.
On 28 October 2023, he received his first straight red card at senior level in the 4th minute, having previously been sent off with Stuttgart U19 in 2013, in a match which witnessed two red cards for the opponent and an 8–0 victory over Darmstadt.
On 17 April 2024, Kimmich scored the only goal in a 1–0 victory over Arsenal to secure a 3–2 aggregate win in the quarter-finals, helping Bayern into the semi-finals of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League, reaching that stage for the first time since winning the title in 2019–20. In the latter half of the 2023–24 season, he played as a right-back under coach Thomas Tuchel.
On 4 September 2016, Kimmich scored his debut goal for the Germany national team in a 3–0 victory over Norway during 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification.
On 17 May 2017, Kimmich was included in Joachim Löw's Germany squad for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. On 6 June 2017, he scored from a stunning overhead kick in a friendly against Denmark in the 88th minute of the game which helped Germany to grab their late equaliser against Denmark, as the match ended up 1–1.
On 4 June 2018, Kimmich was selected for Germany's final 23-man squad by Joachim Löw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On 17 June 2018, Kimmich made his World Cup debut against Mexico in their opening match, but the game ended in a 1–0 loss for Germany. On 6 September 2018, Kimmich started Germany's UEFA Nations League opener against France, playing as a defensive midfielder for the first time in 18 months.
On 19 May 2021, he was selected to the squad for the UEFA Euro 2020. On 4 June 2022, he played the entire 90 minutes in a 1–1 draw against Italy in a group game in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League and scored a goal in the process. Ten days later, he scored a goal in a 5–2 win against the same opponent. On 10 November 2022, he was named in the 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
On 7 June 2024, Kimmich was named in Germany's squad for UEFA Euro 2024. In September 2024, he was appointed as captain of the German national team.
On 4 June 2025, Kimmich played his 100th match with the German national team against Portugal in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League, in which he assisted Florian Wirtz's goal.
Amin Younes complimented Kimmich's defensive awareness as well in an interview, after the U21 EURO group stage. "Winning the ball back superbly. He does that really well", Younes told to the media. During the U21 competition, Philip Röber of UEFA.com, described Kimmich's playing style on the website and compared him to İlkay Gündoğan, but other critics compared him to retired Bayern captain Philipp Lahm.
At Leipzig, he was part of an extremely attack-minded team in which his ball-winning qualities in front of a high back four shone through. In the Germany U21 side, he has a deeper role, but he has also caught the eye as a tidy defensive midfielder. Kimmich has great timing in his tackles, can dribble and does not mind putting in the legwork.
Kimmich is also known for his precise passing and crossing, and is a striker of the ball. Kimmich himself has cited Bastian Schweinsteiger, Xabi Alonso, and Xavi as some of his inspirations.
In March 2023, he featured in the German crime series Tatort.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition !rowspan="2" | Club !rowspan="2" | Season !colspan="3" | League !colspan="2" | DFB-Pokal !colspan="2" | Europe !colspan="2" | Other !colspan="2" | Total |
| RB Leipzig | 2013–14 | 3. Liga | 1 | ||||
| 2014–15 | 2. Bundesliga | 2 | |||||
| Bayern Munich | 2015–16 | Bundesliga | 0 | ||||
| 2016–17 | 9 | ||||||
| 2017–18 | 6 | ||||||
| 2018–19 | 2 | ||||||
| 2019–20 | 7 | ||||||
| 2020–21 | 6 | ||||||
| 2021–22 | 3 | ||||||
| 2022–23 | 7 | ||||||
| 2023–24 | 2 | ||||||
| 2024–25 | 3 | ||||||
| 2025–26 | 1 | ||||||
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year !National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals | |
| Germany | 1 |
| 2 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 2 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| + List of international goals scored by Joshua Kimmich !scope=col | No. !scope=col | Date !scope=col | Venue !scope=col | Cap !scope=col | Opponent !scope=col | Score !scope=col | Result !scope=col | Competition |
| 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification | ||||||||
| Friendly | ||||||||
| 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification | ||||||||
| 2022–23 UEFA Nations League A | ||||||||
| 5–2 | ||||||||
| Friendly | ||||||||
| 2024–25 UEFA Nations League A | ||||||||
| 3–3 | ||||||||
| 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification | ||||||||
| 4–0 |
Germany U19
Germany
Individual
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