Vivien Baum: Rising Star of Women's Football
She was four when her life split in two.
Tanzania in the rear-view mirror, Germany ahead. A new language, a new climate, a new world. But for Vivien Baum, one thing didn’t change: the ball at her feet, and the shadow of her older brother, Dennis, beside her.
He died in a car accident at 17. She was still a child. The loss never left. It simply found a place on her boots and on the tape around her wrist, where his initials, his name and a quote travel with her every time she steps onto the pitch. “That way, he’s always with me,” she told Die Welt. She wishes he could see what she has already done. He would need to keep up.
From village pitches to HSV
After the family settled in northern Germany, Baum’s path began in the kind of setting that still shapes so many careers: a small local club, MTV Ahrensbök, then TSV Pansdorf. She was the only girl in the team at Pansdorf, a detail that says as much about her as it does about the environment. She stayed, she competed, she stood out.
Hamburg soon came calling. The club initially shared her with Pansdorf, then brought her fully into their academy as a teenager. By August 2022, still only 15, she signed her first-team contract with HSV, a deal running to 2025. For most players, that would be a line on a CV. For Baum, it became the launchpad.
Hamburg had been absent from the Frauen-Bundesliga since 2012. Across three seasons, Baum helped drag them back towards the top table. Her first campaign delivered promotion to the second tier and a run to the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal. The following year brought promotion again, this time to the Bundesliga. A teenager, leading a fallen club back into the light.
When her contract expired, she walked away on a free. HSV had been her home. RB Leipzig would be her next test.
Leipzig, lift-off and a league on notice
Leipzig, promoted to the Bundesliga in 2023, offered something the giants could not: a young team still finding its feet, a squad where minutes had to be earned but were genuinely available. Baum saw opportunity and a “fresh start” after four years in Hamburg. She also saw ambition. She chose Saxony over sentiment, even with Bayern Munich – her childhood club – circling.
The bet paid off quickly. In her first Bundesliga season, only three Leipzig players logged more league minutes. She started 23 games, scored six goals and added two assists for a side that finished 10th in a 14-team division. Those numbers don’t scream superstardom. The performances did.
Baum’s game is built on confrontation. She runs at defenders, not around them. She wants the ball early, wants to turn and go, wants to force mistakes. Her pace makes that aggression lethal, her close control and two-footed ability make it unpredictable. Show her inside and she can roll onto either foot and shoot. Show her the line and she can burst away and cross.
She ended the season joint-top scorer in the league for Leipzig and ranked joint-seventh in the Bundesliga for chances created. Doing that in a mid-table team says plenty about her influence. So did the clips that began to circulate: a feint here, a drop of the shoulder there, a defender left grasping at air.
A teenager playing above her age group – everywhere
Baum has been fast-tracked at every level. She played for Germany’s Under-16s at 14, the U17s at 15, then featured in all five matches as Germany reached the quarter-finals of the U20 World Cup at 17. Recently, she has been a regular with the U23s while still only 19.
That pattern – always playing up an age group, always coping – has fuelled the current scramble for her signature. Bayern are back in the frame. Barcelona, reigning European champions and a team she loves to watch, are interested. Lyon, beaten by Barça in the Champions League final, are in the mix. Manchester United and London City, too, see a chance to build around her.
Yet, right now, one club sits slightly ahead.
Arsenal’s wide rebuild and a perfect profile
Bild reports that Arsenal lead the race. The Gunners have just waved goodbye to a string of players, with England international Beth Mead’s move to Manchester City the most high-profile departure out wide. Head coach Renee Slegers needs new weapons on the flanks. Baum fits the brief.
Slegers wants wide players who can stretch the game, attack space and press with intensity. Baum ticks every box. She is direct, fearless and relentless. Off the ball, her work rate stands out. She sprints to press, chases back, and brings energy that can tilt a game’s tempo. On it, she can hurt teams in multiple ways: from distance with a vicious left-foot strike, with sharp runs into the box, or by carving out chances for others.
Her former Hamburg coach, Marwin Bolz, once described her as “determined to improve” – not just technically, but physically and mentally. That matters. Because for all the excitement, she is still a 19-year-old with rough edges.
The flaws that make her dangerous
Baum’s weaknesses are the kind that usually soften with time. She presses with enthusiasm but still needs to refine when and how to jump. She sometimes chooses the direct route when the game demands patience, especially coming from a Leipzig side built to exploit transitions rather than dominate the ball.
There are spells when she drifts out of games. That’s common for young forwards adjusting to the physical demands and tactical detail of elite football. She has only one Bundesliga season behind her. The body will catch up, the consistency will come, the decision-making will sharpen.
The raw materials are already rare. Her blend of agility, balance and aggression brings to mind players like Kerolin, Manchester City’s Brazilian star, who can operate across the front line and always looks to drive at defenders. Baum, slightly taller, could yet become even more imposing physically.
When she cuts inside and lets fly from range, there are flashes of Salma Paralluelo. The Barcelona forward showed in the Champions League final how devastating that move can be, scoring a stunning third before adding a fourth. Baum leans more towards the traditional winger profile than Paralluelo, who often plays centrally, but the threat from distance is becoming a recurring theme in her own game.
A big decision, and a bigger horizon
For a long time, a move to Arsenal might have prompted concern. The club signed several promising youngsters in recent years – Kathrine Kuhl, Rosa Kafaji, Gio Queiroz – and struggled to integrate them into the core of the team. Under Slegers, appointed permanently in January last year, there are signs of change. Smilla Holmberg’s progress this season suggests a clearer pathway and a coach more willing to trust youth in meaningful moments.
Arsenal’s rotation on the wings could suit Baum perfectly. Slegers often changes her wide players around the hour mark, tailoring her choices to the specific demands of each game. That kind of managed exposure to the Women’s Super League would allow Baum to grow without being thrown into the deep end every week, while still testing her at the highest level.
Yet nothing is signed. Barcelona, Lyon and Bayern all have compelling arguments of their own, not least their track records with young talent. London City or Manchester United might offer more guaranteed minutes from day one, a different kind of development path, but perhaps a slower route to the very top of the European game.
The decision now rests with Baum and the tight circle around her. She has already shown she will not be swayed by emotion alone, turning down Bayern once to join Leipzig. She thinks long-term.
“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 brushed off talk of the next senior World Cup as a target and instead pointed to the home European Championship in 2029. That is where her horizon sits.
A 19-year-old winger, with a brother’s initials on her boots, a league at her feet and Europe on the phone. Wherever she goes next, the defenders in front of her will find out quickly: she is not here to wait her turn.
