David Alaba has been called "a future all-time best in the club history" by Pep Guardiola.
Alaba, still just 23, has perhaps become Bayern Munich's most indispensable player.
With Jérome Boateng (adductor), Javier Martínez (knee), Holger Badstuber (broken leg) out and Mehdi Benatia only returning to fitness, Bayern needed Alaba to play center-back.
Alaba started his career as a midfielder and then was converted into a left-back by Louis van Gaal.
“He’s just incredible, he’s just … wow,” Guardiola said a couple of weeks ago. “He can play absolutely everywhere.”
Alaba idolized Patrick Vieira when he was growing up and dreamt of playing for Arsenal.
Alaba is adamant that the credit for his emergence as a football universalist does not lie so much with him as with Guardiola. “He pushes everybody, every day, in a good way,” he says. “Especially me. I’ve been getting better with every year he’s been here, because of him. But I didn’t know myself that I could play as central defender.”