Complicated conversations are coming up
Busy friend is planning the new FC Bayern
December 9, 2023, 7:50 a.m
FC Bayern is already working on its team of the future. Christoph Freund’s handwriting is becoming increasingly clear. He has already bagged two talent deals, but now also faces tricky tasks with established key players.
Curse or blessing? Thomas Tuchel didn’t know the answer to that at first. It was “very, very unusual,” admitted the FC Bayern coach, to suddenly have a nine-day break between two games in a phase “where you actually have a lot of travel, where we are at the limit.” Before the Bundesliga game at Eintracht Frankfurt (Saturday, 3:30 p.m./Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) he trained aggressively and intensively: “We didn’t want anyone to fall asleep.”
Against bottom team Union Berlin last Saturday, the Munich team should, according to their coach, “go a step further”. After the game was canceled, it was now important to “maintain the tension.” However, the conditions for this were initially created by others, which prompted Tuchel to praise him. “The groundskeepers and all the helpers” had “done a great job” to clear the snow from the places on Säbener Strasse: “A big compliment and thank you.”
Tuchel likes Zaragoza
And someone else had not been idle over the past few days: sports director Christoph Freund, who has only been active since September. On Tuesday, FC Bayern suddenly announced the signing of 22-year-old winger Bryan Zaragoza from FC Granada, which was a coup simply because the public didn’t know anything about it until shortly before the announcement. Freund had quietly arranged the transfer, which will be completed next summer.
Tuchel likes the new man. Zaragoza is a “very young, very hungry player”, a “late starter, very self-confident, strong in one-on-one situations”, in short: exactly “what we wanted”, said the coach with a smile: “We are very Happy that he chose us.” This probably applies less to wingers like Serge Gnabry; for someone like him, Zaragoza will soon be “new competition,” as Tuchel mentioned with a grin.
This is what the future looks like
Zaragoza costs around 15 million euros and is actually the second transfer from Freund to Nestory Irankunda. The Australian comes from Adelaide United and his contract will be valid in February when he will be 18 years old. The native Tanzanian is also a winger and a man for the future. This also applies to Frans Krätzig (20) and Aleksandar Pavlovic (19). They come from the in-house campus and have just received professional contracts. On top of that. The French U21 international Leny Yoro is considered the next “hot candidate”. This is what “Sky” reports. The just 18-year-old could be signed next summer, and the record champions are already closely monitoring the top talent. Leny Yoro is one of the discoveries of this Ligue 1 season. The central defender is starting at Lille OSC.
The plans also include the established staff, including goalkeepers Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich, who have just extended their contract until 2025. In addition, discussions are already underway in the background with the aim of tying Alphonso Davies (23/contract until 2025) and Jamal Musiala (20/2026) to FC Bayern quickly and, if possible, for the long term. And last but not least, Freund wants Thomas Müller to stay with the German record champions beyond the coming summer. It is understood that the first planned round of talks with Müller was canceled: the massive onset of winter led to a postponement here too.