Dayot Upamecano and Lennart Karl receive new contracts with significantly more money at FC Bayern. The Munich team continues to spend a lot on their stars – but with a subtle difference compared to the mistakes of the past.
It’s almost become boring: things are clearly going too well at FC Bayern! Nine points ahead in the Bundesliga, the DFB Cup quarter-finals and basically the Champions League round of 16. Before the restart of football in 2026, sports director Max Eberl predicts a season in which “a lot is possible”.
In addition to the kicking staff, the creators also contribute to this. After turbulent troughs with a hire-and-fire principle at all levels, from the coach (Julian Nagelsmann, Thomas Tuchel) to the manager (Hasan Salihamidzic) to the boss (Oliver Kahn), Eberl, together with sports director Christoph Freund and head coach Vincent Kompany, forms a stable triumvirate.
And Kahn’s successor Jan-Christian Dreesen leads the club politically as a sovereign. Even the strict supervisory board members Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge have little to complain about.
FC Bayern before contract extensions with Upamecano and Karl
Example Dayot Upamecano: As can be heard, the highly sought-after defender (Paris, Real) is about to extend his contract. An agreement was reached on the points of contention, Upamecano gets his way on the issues of finances and the exit clause.
From now on he should collect up to 20 million euros per year and thus rise to the ranks of top earners – more on that in a moment.
Example Lennart Karl: When Bayern’s super teenager celebrates his 18th birthday in February, his working paper will be converted into a professional contract until 2029.
The deals with Upamecano and Karl fit exactly into the salary structure that FC Bayern is trying to establish. As a direct consequence of past mistakes.
Bayern mistake after triple 2020: Suddenly salary costs exploded
Under the direction of Kahn and Salihamidzic, wages had exploded. Blinded by the triple triumph in 2020, Bayern handed out high-paying contracts, especially to the Frenchman Lucas Hernández, who was brought in for 80 million in 2019 and is said to have collected up to 24 million per year.
At this point the automatic reflex of a football locker room, the most sensitive breaking point in internal hygiene, took effect: What X gets, Y also wants. Especially if Y thinks she is better and more valuable than X.
Hernández was an X for many. The vaunted Frenchman turned out to be a total flop (also due to injury). A personality as a symbolic end to the Salihamidzic era.
In Hernández’s slipstream, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman gradually advanced into regions between 17 and 19 million after the triple season, as did the prestige transfer Leroy Sané (all amounts in this text are gross and estimated).
FC Bayern reacts to mistakes – with three separate salary classes and fewer top earners
Salihamidzic and Kahn have long been history at FC Bayern. And with them old braids. There should now be three clearly separated salary classes.
In the first group There are undisputed top performers and figureheads such as Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, Joshua Kimmich and Manuel Neuer. For these stars, the austerity measures are not, or not really, effective; Her salary hovers around 20 million. Musiala and Alphonso Davies rose to this level with new contracts in 2025, Upamecano is next.
Bayern’s greatest achievement may be to have reduced the size of this first price category – with players whose salaries were disproportionate to their sporting earnings. Thomas Müller, Coman and Sané left the club last summer, and Gnabry would have to accept significant losses if his contract was extended. Goretzka is said to be speculating on the Gnabry model, but a farewell is more likely.
In the second group Michael Olise, Luis Diaz or Jonathan Tah have been sorted in, and in the future Gnabry too, if he actually stays; Also downgraded are professionals like Aleksandar Pavlovic and Konrad Laimer, who himself is looking for a salary increase.
Youngster Karl is likely to be the one in the future third group lead. There are busy squad players (Hiroki Ito, Raphael Guerreiro), promising talents (Tom Bischof) and substitute goalkeepers (Jonas Urbig, Sven Ulreich).
Neuer, Kane, Olise: There are already other central tasks at FC Bayern
Musiala, Davies, Upamecano, Karl and Kimmich (who also just extended his contract last year) are pillars of the coming Bayern years. For the short-term future, the bosses face further key questions:
- Will Neuer continue or will he end his monumental career after this season?
- Can storm icon Kane be kept beyond 2027 (it looks very good)?
- What about Olise, who did massive self-promotion in a year and a half?
Given the ages of Neuer (almost 40) and Kane (will be 33), the most important thing for the Munich team will probably be to retain the consistently convincing Olise (24). His contract is currently dated until 2029, apparently without an exit clause. If the Frenchman extends his contract, his signature would come with improved conditions.
In the medium term, Olise is undoubtedly a candidate for the first salary bracket. So the elite sphere that Upamecano is now reaching and that Karl will perhaps reach at some point.
