Et is less than a month ago that Hasan Salihamidžić, the sporting director of FC Bayern Munich, sat in the Sky studio and spoke about striker Robert Lewandowski. In the ever-excited soccer world with its ever-excited producers and consumers, the breaking news caused extra excitement that world soccer player Lewandowski could join FC Barcelona in the summer – although he is under contract with FC Bayern until June 30, 2023. And so the moderator and Salihamidžić had the following dialogue in the Sky Studio dialogue:
Moderator: “Is it an option to give him up in 2022 if Barcelona put XY transfer fee on the table?”
Salihamidzic: “No!”
Moderator: “Can you rule it out?”
Salihamidzic: “Me!”
Moderator: “Can you generally rule out that Lewandowski will leave Bayern in 2022?”
Salihamidzic: “Me!”
On Friday afternoon, Julian Nagelsmann was sitting on Säbener Strasse in Munich – and he was supposed to be the first to speak about Robert Lewandowski in the press conference before his last game of the season on Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) in Wolfsburg. “I can say that he has trained very well, is very committed, has also scored a few good goals in training, he will be in the starting XI tomorrow.” And because he knew that the questioner was probably not particularly good at it, he added “All other things – the attitude of the club, my attitude towards Robert, the contractual situation, June 30, 2023 – are known. I do not provide any information about all other topics that take place in discussions.”
The evening before, several reports had caused a stir that Lewandowski had informed his club last week that he would not be extending his contract in Munich. Which would mean: If Bayern don’t want to lose the next leading player without a transfer fee after David Alaba, they would have to sell him this summer. A scenario that sports director Salihamidžić ruled out in April. And so only one thing is certain: there will continue to be excitement about Robert Lewandowski.
