VMaybe in the current discussion, a quick look back is needed in order to understand the malaise of “Mia san mia”. In 2008, the then Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß was on a plane on his way to some Fifa event and was terribly upset. Next to him sat the player consultant Marc Kosicke, who has Jürgen Klopp in his client file, among others. Hoeneß is now upset that the Munich players, especially the newcomers, don’t have that Bayern Munich feeling and don’t even know what Bayern Munich actually means.
Then Kosicke asked him: “Mr. Hoeneß, what does that mean – Bayern Munich? What messages should be sent?” Is there a basis on which everyone can move, agree and communicate? Hoeneß replied, Kosicke reported: “No, we don’t have anything like that, can you do something like that?” Kosicke said, of course he could.
In cooperation with the club’s employees, a kind of Bayern bible was created, the title of which was clear to Kosicke from the start because he hated it as a little boy in Werder’s Weser Stadium, “when Bayern with their mia-san-mia attitude came and still won in the 90th minute”.
At the beginning he covered the title with tape, which the former Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Hoeneß then tore off: “Mia san mia – yes, is that how it’s written? Isn’t that written with an R?” asked Rummenigge. Hoeneß replied: “No, that’s the space station.” Since then, “Mia san mia” has had an amazing career on Säbener Straße. It is self-image, ideology as well as an expression of cohesion and a stronghold mentality. Hoeneß himself, in particular, has over the years stylized this more and more of a family approach to this highly professionalized Bavarian industry leader. The majority of players from the past can confirm that it was largely practiced in this way for a long time.
Schweinsteiger reiterates Matthäus’ criticism of FC Bayern
As part of FC Bayern’s disgraceful cup defeat on Tuesday evening against SC Freiburg (1-2), former Bayern star Bastian Schweinsteiger noticed a change in management style at Bayern Munich. “This ‘mia san mia’ has gotten a bit lost compared to maybe ten years ago or other times,” said Schweinsteiger. It also depends on the characters who would work there, and of course on the generation of players.
Schweinsteiger thus confirmed the statements by Lothar Matthäus, which had caused a stir in the past few days.
The two former Bayern captains Oliver Kahn and Lothar Matthäus, for example, exchanged verbal blows on the TV microphone before Munich’s top Bundesliga game against Borussia Dortmund. “I would ask you, Lothar, what do you actually mean by ‘Mia san Mia’ when you always assume that there is no ‘Mia san Mia’ anymore?” asked the visibly annoyed Bayern boss Kahn the round of the TV channel Sky: “What exactly do you mean? You just put it somewhere in the landscape – and then everyone can choose what that means.”
Matthäus had recently criticized the German soccer record champion in his capacity as a Sky expert for separating from Nagelsmann. Bayern’s familial, protective self-image, the “Mia san Mia”, no longer exists, “partially trampled on”, the record national player had judged. FC Bayern was surprised by the Matthäus statements and also contradicted him.
On Saturday, Matthäus then replied to Kahn that he would not want a “private war”. “You can call me at any time,” said Matthäus, referring to his contacts at Bayern, with whom he speaks.
“These aren’t arguments,” Kahn replied. “Pay attention, maybe one or the other here is also suffering from transfiguration or distortion of memory. Even when we were playing. You can probably still remember that there were always decisions that weren’t easy.
On Sunday, Kahn followed up on the BILD TV station. After his career, Matthäus rose to become the “chief critic of German football” “via one way or another,” he said. It’s okay that you don’t wear kid gloves and that things get violent at times. “However, one should not exceed certain limits. He said we trampled on the “Mia san Mia”. I still don’t know exactly what he means by that,” said Kahn: “Hasan (Hasan Salihamidzic, FC Bayern Board Member for Sport, the editors) and I, we always told the truth, and Lothar’s claims don’t change anything.”
The Bavarians had announced Nagelsmann’s appointments in the early evening of March 24, and their separation had already been reported on the evening of March 23. The coach reportedly found out about his departure from the media. Kahn justified this by saying that Nagelsmann, who was on vacation, should be spoken to personally and “not on the phone”. Nagelsmann only drove up to the club center on Säbener Straße on March 24th.
In his analysis during the Munich Cup game, Schweinsteiger had given insights into what the 35-year-old Nagelsmann had probably failed at. “At the end of the day the results weren’t good, the Bayern board didn’t like the style of play anymore – and Thomas Tuchel was available,” he says. The great coaches at FC Bayern reported Scheinsteiger, “Ottmar Hitzfeld, Jupp Heynckes, or Hans Flick did one thing: They treated the players well, they reached everyone in the squad”.
In the case of Nagelsmann, it was now clear that “he didn’t have a great connection to everyone. That’s extremely important at Bayern. It doesn’t always matter what tactics you use. Embracing the players, talking to them and making them better, that’s crucial.”
Scheinsteiger was asked whether a young coach like Nagelsmann shouldn’t be better instructed and guided. “From every side,” he replied, “there should be an insight, looking back, that all hadn’t been perfect. I wasn’t always there, but I know one thing for sure: when a coach is fired at Bayern, it’s also because the whole team wasn’t behind the coach.”
