When it came to the hot personnel issues at FC Bayern in Sport1’s “double pass” on Sunday afternoon, Hasan Salihamidzic switched to attack mode.
Pini Zahavi, Robert Lewandowski’s notorious agent, “turned Lewy’s head,” said Salihamidzic: “It’s just not clean.”
Especially since Zahavi is said to have shared details of the negotiations with the outside world. Lewandowski will “fulfil” his contract, which runs until 2023, added Bayern’s sports director. It is very important “that we still have a year’s contract with our most important player.”
And Salihamidzic also became clear with captain Manuel Neuer. The goalkeeper is a “key to success. I’m optimistic that Manu will play for Bayern for a few more years.” Talks about extending the contract beyond 2023 are “on the home stretch”.
The deal is now fixed. The national goalkeeper extended until 2024 in Munich.
Salihamidzic now wants to “strengthen the squad at the top selectively, but also across the board”, as he continued: “We want to do one or two more things. The market is opening up now, a lot will happen there.”
CEO Oliver Kahn had previously made a public exclamation mark. In the “Welt am Sonntag” he revealed how Bayern intends to keep up with the financially strong English giants around Manchester City and Liverpool FC in the future.
“It’s a big challenge. We mustn’t fool ourselves,” said the Bayern boss and explained in detail: “The leverage of the Premier League clubs through the combination of investor funds and more than three and a half times the income from media rights compared to the Bundesliga is huge,” said the 52-year-old.
“This leverage means that the top English clubs are moving further and further away from us in their salary structure, and the gap is constantly growing. This allows them to afford a broader and more expensive squad.”
Kahn wants to compensate for these disadvantages for Munich as much as possible by opening up new sources of income “related to football”. “In terms of Metaverse, Web 3.0 and crypto, there will be exciting opportunities in the future. Above all, however, we are further developing our classic business areas of stadiums, ticketing, merchandising and sponsoring and taking them to the next level.”
In order to get further in the Champions League in the future than the quarter-finals. There was a disappointing end to underdogs FC Villarreal this season. “FC Bayern will definitely not become a training club,” Kahn clarified.
“FC Bayern is still an elemental force. We’re still able to have 14 to 15 absolute top players in our ranks. If all the building blocks fit together in a season, we can win the Champions League in the future.”
Already in the upcoming 2022/23 season? With Niklas Süle, another important defender is leaving the club, to rival Borussia Dortmund of all places. Lewandowski also wants to switch to FC Barcelona. Kahn and sports director Salihamidzic are particularly challenged in this summer transfer period to keep the squad at a first-class level or to improve it.
“The transfer period ends on August 31, we have a clear path,” said Salihamidzic. The deal with right-back Noussair Mazraoui is already fixed, his Ajax team-mate Ryan Gravenberch for midfield is also expected to sign with Bayern shortly. And Salihamidzic himself?
Kahn left open whether the sports director will extend his contract, which expires in 2023, after a “two-minus season” only with the championship and an “too early” end in the DFB Cup: “I like working with Hasan, and he gives Everything for the club every day,” he said: “We will analyze the season together and continue to work on FC Bayern’s success. Basically, however, the supervisory board is responsible for extending board contracts.”
Salihamdizic said: “I’m not worried about my contract at all, I’m completely relaxed.” He does his job “quite normally” and wants to develop and strengthen the team. One thing is for sure: the next few weeks will be quite busy for the offensive Bayern bosses.
This article was written by Maximilian Koch
Hamburger SV – Hertha BSC
05/23/2022 | 8:30 p.m
SC Freiburg lost the DFB Cup final against RB Leipzig. Nevertheless, the traveling fans from Breisgau celebrate the team and coach Christian Streich. When he walks past the trophy at the award ceremony, it breaks the heart of every football fan.
Manchester City are English champions! Pep Guardiola’s team turns a 0-2 deficit against Aston Villa within a few minutes to 3-2 (0-1), Ilkay Gündogan scores twice. Liverpool FC’s 3-1 (1-1) win over Wolverhampton Wanderers is useless. All information to read in the ticker.
Marco Rose’s dismissal on Friday came as a surprise. Apparently, the season analysis by BVB officials was so devastating that the coach had to leave after just one year and despite being runner-up. The list of allegations against the coach is long.
The original of this article “Bavaria’s new financial plans to break English dominance” comes from the evening newspaper.
