Sport Bild has a spicy report alleging that current Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann tried to bring Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz to Bayern Munich two summers ago — but was overruled by honorary president Uli Hoeneß.
Here’s the report, as captured by @iMiaSanMia:
In summer 2022, Julian Nagelsmann, Hasan Salihamidžić and Marco Neppe went to Uli Hoeneß with the idea of signing Florian Wirtz while he was still recovering from his ACL injury. The plan of the trio (Nagelsmann, Salihamidžić, Neppe) was for Wirtz to define an era at Bayern together with Jamal Musiala in the future. They wanted to go for Wirtz while he was injured to possibly get him for under his value in that situation. But they needed the approval of the supervisory board. Uli Hoeneß vetoed the plan and said ‘no’. Hoeneß recalled the signing of Lucas Hernández for €80m while he has recovering from a serious knee injury and who had to battle many injury problems after that [@altobelli13, @cfbayern]
In the end, Nagelsmann was sacked at Bayern before the end of the season — followed shortly out the door by sporting director Salihamidžić and later by technical director Neppe — while Wirtz recovered and went on to lead Leverkusen a year later to an invincible Bundesliga trophy-winning season.
And after many more sackings, the Bavarians are rumored to be maneuvering for Wirtz again — and having to clear the decks in order to so, now that he will not be available at a cut rate price.
But at Germany, Nagelsmann has brought Musiala and Wirtz together again — and boy, is he cooking. The pair seem perfectly suite to Nagelsmann’s free-wheeling, narrow attacking system and it is hard not to wonder what could have been at Bayern.
Looking for more thoughts on Germany’s upcoming EURO 2024 quarterfinal match vs. Spain, along with our takes the transfer sagas surrounding Bayern Munich stars Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Kimmich, plus why the new front office sure looks like they are creating a leadership void? Then we have you covered with our Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show, which is available on Spotify or below: