Joshua Kimmich

Early career

Kimmich played youth football for VfB Stuttgart. He then went on to join RB Leipzig in July 2013. Stuttgart secured an option to rebuy. He made his 3. Liga debut for the club on 28 September of that year, as a substitute for Thiago Rockenbach in a 2–2 draw with SpVgg Unterhaching. He scored his first professional goal in a 3–2 victory over 1. FC Saarbrücken on 30 November 2013. He finished the 2013–14 season with one goal in 26 appearances. 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.

Bayern Munich

2015–2017

On 2 January 2015, Kimmich agreed to join Bayern Munich on a five-year contract lasting until 30 June 2020, for a reported fee of €7 million, most of which went to VfB Stuttgart. He made his debut for the club on 9 August, starting in the first round of the DFB-Pokal against FC Nöttingen. Pep Guardiola gave him his Bundesliga debut the following month on 12 September when he entered play as a late substitute at home against FC Augsburg. Four days later, Kimmich made his first appearance in the UEFA Champions League in Bayern's tournament opener away at Olympiakos and he started in the Bundesliga for the first time three days thereafter, playing 90 minutes against SV Darmstadt 98 in a 3–0 victory. Kimmich ended his…

On 17 May 2016, Kimmich was named in Germany's preliminary 27-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016. On 29 May, he made his international debut in a 3–1 home friendly defeat against Slovakia. On 31 May, Kimmich was named in the final 23-man squad and given the shirt number 21. On 21 June, Kimmich was selected to start for Germany in their final Group C match against Northern Ireland, replacing Benedikt Höwedes at right-back. Kimmich remained Germany's first-choice right-back as they reached the semi-finals and was named in UEFA's Team of the Tournament. 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…

Horst Hrubesch has praised Kimmich for his versatility, saying "Joshua has enormous quality and is versatile in both attacking and defensive roles," also describing him as "an intelligent player with good technical skills and agility" and as "a winner." Remarking on Kimmich's versatility, a 2017 article on the Bundesliga's official website referred to him as a "veritable Swiss Army knife of a player", citing Pep Guardiola's conversion of a player he once referred to as "one of the best defensive midfielder in the world" into a right-back. He has also been used as a make-shift centre-back on occasion, as a central midfielder, or as a deep-lying playmaker, due to his ability to dictate play in midfield. In 2015, Guardiola described Kimmich as a promising player, and noted that he "...has everything a player needs. He is very intelligent, always aggressive toward the ball, strong in the air, has an eye for free space, has superb vision and knows when to charge forward and when to sit back."

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…

Kimmich married his long-time girlfriend, Lina Meyer in 2022. The couple has four children, a son, born in 2019, a daughter, born in October 2020, with their third child being born in 2022, and their fourth in 2024.