There is a principle that actually applies to all outfield players of the modern FC Bayern Munich – even to those who wrote and are writing the great history of this football club: If they are 30 years of age or older, their contract is always only renewed year by year.
That’s how you did it with Franck Ribéry. That’s how you did it with Arjen Robben. And that’s how you’re doing it at the moment with Thomas Müller, the man who has internalized the thinking and speaking of this club so much that many think it could be him who will later sit in the armchairs on Säbener Straße and the players’ contracts will negotiate.
But there is also a basic conflict that arises not only in the Säbener, but in all streets, where the decision-makers of the top clubs discuss which players they want in their teams and which not. But in Munich this summer, this conflict is more visible than in other places. And it is very likely that this conflict is the reason why FC Bayern, the dominant German football club, wanted to violate its principle in these weeks – and want to continue to do so.
Kyle Walker’s vows
If you want to explain the conflict, you can look at the player who was supposed to come to Munich this summer but then didn’t want to come: Kyle Walker, 33 years old, defender of football’s benchmark team Manchester City. It was – according to several people who are familiar with the events of the FAS – Thomas Tuchel, the coach of FC Bayern, who made it clear to Walker that he was very interested in him, the player. Tuchel appreciates Walker’s speed, but also his will to win. And because what the club then offered the player was probably very good, he gave his yes in July.
People familiar with what’s going on said it was also that detail that delighted Walker and his managers: the two-year deal that would eventually turn into a three-year deal.
As of this week it is clear that Kyle Walker will most likely continue to play in Manchester next season. It seems he used the German champion’s offer to increase the English champion’s offer. But one way or another, the question remains: Why did Bayern want to violate their principle for a 33-year-old who will lose his great speed sooner rather than later? And one way or another, the answer remains, which reveals a lot, maybe even everything, about the basic conflict: because the coach Thomas Tuchel wanted this 33-year-old.
Kyle Walker just almost became a Bayern Munich pro. : Image: dpa
This Saturday evening (8.45 p.m. on Sat.1 and Sky) the season with the DFL Supercup begins for Thomas Tuchel and FC Bayern Munich. And even if everything in these weeks revolved around the striker Harry Kane – more later -, with the first Bundesliga game in Bremen (August 18) at the latest, Tuchel will be in the spotlight again. In the old season, when he was only hired in the middle of the most important weeks, he was a coach who was meant to win (and then lost outright in the Champions League and DFB-Pokal). Now, in the new season, he’s a coach who needs to win.
