Rummenigge names the most important Bayern transfers - Lewandowski only in fourth place

Created: 09/12/2022, 11:16 am

By: José Carlos Menzel López, Hanna Raif

In a tz interview before the Barcelona game, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge talks about debt, Lewandowski and transfer excesses.

© Imago

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge will sit in the Allianz Arena against FC Barcelona.

The tz spoke to the ex-Bayern boss before the bang.

Munich – Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was not in the stadium against Inter and VfB.

Tomorrow, in the big match against FC Barcelona, ​​the 66-year-old will be in the Allianz Arena.

The former Bayern boss is looking forward to seeing a club that is still big – and Lewandowski, as he reveals in the tz interview.

Mr. Rummenigge, the second Champions League start "without" you.

Are you even more relaxed this year than last season?

I was very relaxed last year.

I watched a couple of nice games last year, but unfortunately I was also in the stadium against Villarreal.

Who benefits from the time gained?

You promised your wife a dance class for a long, long time...

Unfortunately it didn't exist yet...

Unfortunately?

You know how good and how much I like to dance (laughs).

But I'm seriously considering now that I have to keep my promise.

We were watching a tango movie together the other day and she gave me a look as if to remind me.

I won't be able to get out of there much longer...

"The focus is on seeing Robert Lewandowski again"

The stadium is then more familiar terrain for you.

You haven't been to the San Siro recently, but don't miss out on Barca.

Did you have to smile at the draw – like Kahn?

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Naturally.

The focus is on seeing Robert Lewandowski again, although of course I have a lot of memories of games against FC Barcelona.

The 8:2 was legendary, but there were also other times.

We once played in Barcelona with Jürgen Klinsmann and it was 4-0 at half-time.

In the second half I looked at the clock more often than ever before or since.

But there were also beautiful moments, like 2013.

Those are the games I remember most fondly.

The 4-0 in Munich against Barca with Messi in top form, then the 3-0 in Barcelona.

I thought to myself: If you beat Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals, you deserve to win the Champions League.

And so it was.

In retrospect, was the 2:8 the cut at Barca?

Barca have been a real benchmark for a long time and have always been a role model for us.

I have often discussed this with Uli Hoeneß.

Unfortunately, that has changed a bit in recent years.

That mad game in Lisbon was a sign.

We were really nervous beforehand because we expected a close game.

On the way back we sat in the bus and drank beer.

And everyone thought: We are sitting here in a film.

Hopefully tomorrow it will still be as beautiful as it feels right now.

One gets the impression Barca used to be the talent developer.

This year the club has shopped like never before.

Barcelona used to be a role model for everyone with La Masia.

With Messi, they then hit the jackpot that took the whole club to a new level.

Unfortunately, the ravages of time have not passed him by either, and there were also major financial problems.

I know Joan Laporta very well.

He didn't want a fresh start based on patience, but a quick one.

Now he has at least proved that the team he built is a force to be reckoned with again.

"In Spain, finances are not weighted as dramatically as in Germany"

But it is a risky undertaking.

The club has a big mortgage - everything has to fit in the next few years.

I know Joan, he's a big optimist.

Still, I think he's the right man at the top now.

He knows the club like no other and experienced the great times with Pep Guardiola.

And to be honest, finances are not weighted as dramatically in Spain as they are in Germany.

If the sporting performance is right, you can manage everything somehow.

The clocks tick a little differently.

With liabilities of more than one billion euros, which is what people are talking about, I would have had many sleepless nights.

Rummenigge wishes Lewandowski a friendly welcome in Munich.

© Imago

Julian Nagelsmann has faced criticism for claiming Barca are the only club to buy without money.

But that impression is correct, isn't it?

My general recommendation is: cobbler, stick to your last.

Julian shouldn't make any political statements - that's the job of Oliver Kahn and Herbert Hainer.

He got a broadside back from Spain.

I think it's always better to keep things within your own area of ​​expertise.

Of course they had to go a new way in Barcelona.

You have shifted a lot of income from the future to the present in order to be able to make transfers.

And I think Barcelona have always been an important club for European football.

Nevertheless, you predicted third place in the group for them.

Are you rowing back after the first day of play?

I didn't predict it, I wished for it (laughs).

At Inter I had a worse feeling in the first game.

Barca just have Robert Lewandowski.

There was so much discussion in the summer, but it has to be said clearly and unequivocally: He is also performing outstandingly at Barcelona – for the third time in a row.

Lewandowski "has made a contribution to the well-being of Bayern Munich at all levels"

What kind of reception do you expect in the Allianz Arena?

I wish that FC Bayern and the audience would welcome him with gratitude.

You have to remember: he played here for eight years, won everything there is to win and scored between 35 and 50 goals every year.

He came on a free transfer and has now been sold for 45 million euros.

So he made a contribution to the good of Bayern Munich on all levels.

In memory, however, is the alternating theater.

Spain has always been on the back of his mind.

And that was perhaps the last opportunity to change on this scale.

It doesn't change the fact that he was one of the most important transfers of the last 15, 20 years.

Next to?

Ribery, Robben, Neuer, Lewandowski - in that order.

You once rejected a Real offer for Ribery because you said: We are not a seller's club - and our contracts will be honored.

Would Lewandowski still be among you?

In the end it was a win-win situation for both sides.

FC Bayern also spent a lot of money this summer.

It was totally okay to find a solution with Robert.

Bayern Munich has always been able to achieve sporting success with solid financing.

This change was also very consultant-driven.

Do the advisors have too much power?

There's always a gray area of ​​what's true and what's not, what's manipulated and what's not, what the public does or doesn't know.

But that's all in the past now.

Obviously, what Volker Struth said during the Corona crisis is not true.

I quote: We too will have to bake smaller rolls.

Larger baguettes were created from the smaller rolls.

“Football cannot afford higher and higher payments every year”

The transfer fees are even higher than before the crisis.

At least in Germany, there are still discussions about sustainability and finances.

The fans want you to think about it.

This is an issue in all areas of our society.

Football cannot afford higher and higher payments every year.

Since the Bosman verdict, this has been a one-way street that only goes up steeply, the cost screw turns and turns.

We must be careful that the football industry is not the only industry in the world that is no longer making a profit.

But some big players have other plans.

Key word: Super League.

This idea came about because of Premier League revenue.

I have a relaxed relationship with Florentino Pérez.

He was always a big critic that the English were bringing billionaires, hedge funds or, in the meantime, states into football – and the rest of Europe was suffering as a result.

The big driver is exclusively England.

Net investments in England are higher than ever.

That has something to do with competitiveness.

Toni Kroos - perhaps not entirely unaffected - is of the opinion that the Superliga will and must come.

He also plays for the club that is still convinced that she will come.

I, on the other hand, am sure that this topic will never be discussed again at the big clubs in France, England and Germany.

And a super league without the participation of these three leagues will never happen.

Of course, the owners who allow private wealth to flow into their clubs will always have such concerns, after all they don't invest their money with these clubs and then hand it over to the good Samaritans.

Nevertheless, this super league will not come.

In addition, the response from the public, the media and the fans was so dramatically negative that no one would dare to do it anymore.

I am more than convinced of that.

And do you want me to tell you something else?

Please!

The Superliga would not have dramatically increased club revenues but would have had two consequences.

On the one hand, it would have created a tie between the clubs from England, Spain and Italy, the countries that had agreed at the time.

And on the other hand there would have been no relegations, which would have meant a kind of season ticket for said clubs in this competition.

Both things couldn't have worked in Europe, simply because the fans don't want them either.

We have to be careful not to do anything in football for the exclusive benefit of finances.

“The mix between age and quality is right” at Bayern

Bayern's sports director Hasan Salihamidzic invested 140 million euros this summer and was highly praised for his work.

You once said that he shouldn't be "Hoeneß light".

Do you have the impression that he is now going his own way?

He's been scolded quite harshly in the past, so I'm all the happier that he's now being praised – and rightly so, by the way.

His work in the past transfer market has indeed been very successful.

I think Bayern Munich will be German champions for the eleventh time in a row this season.

As has always been the case in the past, it always depends on what happens in the knockout stages of the Champions League from February.

You have to have patience.

Know each other for a long time: Rummenigge and Laporta, here in a picture from 2009. © Imago

Does that also decide whether you continue to play without a real nine?

Keyword: Harry Kane.

At Bayern Munich everything depends on how this season goes.

If things go well, I can imagine that Bayern Munich will act a little more cautiously on the transfer market next summer.

After all, you have a team that is not only good, but also relatively young.

In Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller and Sadio Mané you only have three players on the pitch who are 30 or older.

The mix between age and quality is right, everything is in the green.

Now you just have to have that little bit of luck and play a season that lives up to expectations.

So win big titles?

I have to say openly and honestly that the word triple is almost too often put in my mouth at the moment.

You can always dream of that, but the Champions Legaue is simply a great asset.

A year ago, who would have expected her to win Real Madrid?

In Munich, the end against Villarreal meanwhile seemed like a turning point.

Is FC Bayern also about the fundamentals this year?

Against Villarreal, everyone from the media to the fans, maybe even the team and the manager believed it was a relatively easy draw.

But you have to be highly concentrated - no matter against whom - you should ideally have all the players available and then bring that dash of humility with you.

This humility has sprung from great defeats, particularly in the greatest triumphs of recent memory.

From my own experience, if you're willing to learn, you learn the most from failure.

You get angry, but use that anger to avoid repeating your mistakes.

Also this year it can be helpful to say: We experienced something in Villarreal from which we have to learn lessons so that it doesn't happen to us again this season.

Internationally, sooner or later you will have to get past Real Madrid.

How do you explain that this club is always capable of the seemingly impossible?

I recently had frequent contact with Carlo (Ancelotti, ed.).

And if I'm honest, after the half-time result in the second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, I was ready to go to bed.

I was a bit tired too, I have to admit.

In the end I was glad that I stood my ground and watched the game to the end, because not only this game, but Real Madrid's entire season in the Champions League was unsurpassed in terms of dramaturgy.

In addition, they win the Spanish league, the European Super Cup – and they will also be crowned FIFA Club World Champions.

What did you say to Ancelotti?

I have expressed my admiration to him.

He has such incredible patience and sometimes reveals things that you wouldn't think possible.

He wasn't just lucky.

He himself says he has a team of incredible character who have accomplished things that would have amazed even him.

In my opinion, that's one reason, the other is this stadium.

I played at the Bernabéu, sat there myself in my second job and can only say that it inspires respect, even fear.

If the fans get going there, the spark jumps from the stands to the pitch and then this stadium becomes a madhouse.

Positive for football.

What goes through your head when you think about Toni Kroos' career since he joined in 2014?

I see two things in him.

He's a player who has had a great career.

But then there is also Toni Kroos, who is a bit too critical for me.

If, for example, he once again announces sentences about Uli Hoeneß, I have to say openly and honestly that I don't like it.

Don't forget: Uli Hoeneß got him from Rostock when he was 16 for a million euros.

That was by far the highest amount ever paid for such a young lad at FC Bayern.

He was then trained here and took his first, second and even third steps as a professional in the club.

Toni Kroos should be grateful to Uli for that.

Interview: Hanna Raif and José Carlos Menzel López