If there is one thing that still burns Michael Reschke from his time at Bayern Munich, it is the transfer deal that sent Toni Kroos to Real Madrid.
“Such developments happen in professional football. Somehow the combination of Kroos and Bayern no longer worked harmoniously. It was a strange situation for me. In 2009, I was responsible for his loan from Bayern to Leverkusen. I had repeatedly asked (Uli) Hoeneß and (Karl-Heinze) Rummenigge to make this loan happen,” Reschke told Tz’s Philipp Kessler (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “After 18 months in Leverkusen, Toni could have very well imagined staying at Bayer 04, but Rummenigge and Hoeneß were not willing to listen. And when I moved to FC Bayern myself in 2014, one of my first official acts was to handle the Kroos transfer. Of course, I regretted it very much from a sporting perspective, but there were reasons for both sides to part ways. For Toni it was certainly a golden decision. And from Bayern’s point of view, it just didn’t fit anymore back then.”
There was A LOT going on back then and as Reschke noted, change was probably necessary. Still, it is never a good look to let a player who will go down as one of the all-time greats slip through your grasp for a football club.