Welcome back, piranha drama. Back during the 2020/21 season, Bayern Munich was making hard work of renewing David Alaba’s contract, which was set to run out in 2021. The club, Alaba and Alaba’s agent, Pini Zahavi, always struggled to meet in the middle on wage demands, struggles which quickly became toxic due to some fiery comments from Uli Hoeneß. The former Bayern president ripped into Zahavi and gave him the infamous designation of “greedy piranha.”
Naturally, both Zahavi and Alaba were not happy about Hoeneß’ comments and quickly offered their own rebukes, eventually settling on a move to Real Madrid instead of renewing at Bayern. Revisiting the situation over four years later, however, Zahavi continues to express his disappointment at the comment, as captured by @iMiaSanMia: “I was very disappointed when Uli Hoeneß wanted to put me in that corner, as a greedy piranha. People who know me know that I’m the exact opposite of greedy. After Hoeneß’s words were out there, an important official from Manchester United called me and said, I can’t believe what he’s saying.”
It is good to see that Zahavi got some support during such trying times. But Zahavi was not done expressing his hurt. Asked if the comment was the worst thing anyone has ever said to him, Zahavi gladly took the bait: “I think so. It’s always about who says something. If it had been someone else, it might have hurt. But I knew he [Hoeneß] talks nonsense.”
Not only did he revisit the initial incident, but he also threw a barb Hoeneß’ way in the process. This seems set up for a fiery response from the member of Bayern’s supervisory board. After multiple years, it seems as if the piranha drama has gotten a sequel.
