Uli Hoeneß was manager of FC Bayern from 1979 to 2009. He then also worked as President of Munich, and he is currently a member of the Supervisory Board.Image: www.imago-images.de / Future Image
Bundesliga
Actually, Uli Hoeneß had every reason to be in a good mood at the weekend. Although FC Bayern only started the second half of the Bundesliga season with a draw (1-1) against Leipzig, Bayern Munich extended their lead in second place to five points.
Sporting Director Hasan Salihamidžić signed Yann Sommer to replace the injured Manuel Neuer. For around eight million euros, Bayern have a strong goalkeeper between the posts for the second half of the season. The people of Munich are prepared for the race for a possible treble – but Hoeneß still looked pissed off on Sunday.
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In the “double pass” on Sunday, the 71-year-old fought a war of words with “Bild” reporter Christian Falk. The reason: In the “Bild am Sonntag” it was brought into play in a column that Manuel Neuer should at least partially take over the transfer fee and the salary costs for summer.
When asked about Neuer’s injury while ski touring, Hoeneß initially admitted: “He probably knows himself that Manuel made a mistake.” Nevertheless, one should not forget that Manuel Neuer has done a lot for Bayern.
This was followed by the sentence that sparked the discussion with Falk, who was also a guest on the show. Hoeness said: “If I read somewhere today that it needs to be considered whether he doesn’t have to pay the eight million euros that Yann Sommer costs to Bayern…”
Violent “image” criticism from Hoeneß
Hoeneß did not finish his sentence. Moderator Florian König interrupted him and said smugly: “Somewhere the ‘Bild am Sonntag’ was involved.”
Then Hoeness shared. “You can see that with this paper, people get their butts licked for as long as they need to and when they’re on the ground, they step on them. That won’t happen at Bayern Munich,” Hoeneß said, clearly expressing his support for Neuer.
“We know that you like to disguise your opinion openly as the opinion of FC Bayern.”
Accusation by Uli Hoeneß against picture reporter Christian Falk
Falk smiled at this verbal slap, but gave Hoeneß a counter: “Hasan Salihamidžić was already on the air today on Bild TV and he also said that we would definitely talk to Manuel Neuer about this topic.” He then added that it wasn’t purely media opinion, “but it’s also a big issue at the club.”
Hoeneß replied dryly: “But we know that you like to present your opinion openly as the opinion of FC Bayern.” In fact, Hoeneß also knew Salihamidžić’s opinion. He was very sure that this topic would be dealt with calmly.
Hoeneß added: “I find it impossible to discuss such issues three days after signing Yann Sommer. That’s the problem for FC Bayern in the media: as soon as one problem is solved, they try to find the next one.”
After all: After the broadcast, Falk published a photo on Instagram. To see: The “double pass” round around presenter Florian König and his guests.
In the caption, Falk suggests that he and Hoeneß got back together after the show. Falk writes: “Living Bavarian culture of debate at the Sport1 double pass and then a conciliatory white sausage meal with Uli Hoeneß.”
Three days after the start of training, trainer Steffen Baumgart experienced so much fan love that has not been experienced in Cologne for a long time. When the 51-year-old left the catacombs of Geißbockheim and walked to the training ground, the assembled fans sang him a loud serenade: Happy Birthday. It was the coach’s birthday.
