Ever since Neymar’s 222-million euro transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, the football transfer market feels like it has been broken with the fierce pace at which its margins have continued to grow beyond levels previously imaginable. It now feels a distant memory where top class players would cost roughly 20-30 million pounds, and those marks would routinely shatter club record transfer fees. Now, that can basically just ensure you a squad player unless a top shelf player is being signed on an absolute bargain.
At a club like Bayern Munich, where previous members of the front office have been staunch critics of ridiculous transfer fees, they are still not impervious to the transfer market trends. Left back Alphonso Davies just signed a much-anticipated contract extension with the German Rekordmeister that keeps him at the club through June 2030. As a part of his new deal, the Canadian international received a 22-million euro signing bonus, which is a bit of an ironic detail given that the club has remained firm in their stance of not wanting to offer Joshua Kimmich a signing bonus with his proposed new deal that is still being hashed out.
Speaking on the matter of Davies’ signing bonus, board member for sport Max Eberl put things into perspective in relative terms, recognizing just how much the financial landscape has changed since his own time as a player — and even during his tenure as sporting director at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
“I don’t comment on figures, but in general I have long since put aside the comparison with my previous salaries, even as Gladbach’s sporting director. The market conditions are what they are. In the end it’s about: are there real alternatives on the market? We have to make these decisions and we have clearly answered them for Phonzy,” Eberl explained when he was directly asked about the nature of Davies’ contract sign-on bonus (via @iMiaSanMia).
Of course, with the Kimmich argument coming into play, Bayern’s number 6 and Davies are at different trajectories of their careers with the club and as a whole, so they are two, separate cases in terms of the contracts the club wants to offer them. It has been reported that a deal between Kimmich and the club is close after the supervisory board held a meeting to discuss his deal and make final decisions, but the case has certainly been a bit different than it was for Davies.
Looking for more thoughts and discussion surrounding Bayern Munich’s shocking loss to VfL Bochum? What about how we feel heading into another showdown with Bayer Leverkusen? Did Bayern Munich blow €80 million in 2024? We’ve got all of that, plus how we feel about Joshua Kimmich most likely having a new deal in place on the Bavarian Podcast Works Show! You can get the podcast on Patreon, Spotify, or below.
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