Bayern's strange 'world'

Salihamidzic is a former star player who later returned to Bayern Munich as sporting director for six years. He's known for being "good at everything he does." And let me add: German football differs significantly from surrounding leagues in that the role of "sporting director" or "technical director" is often the most important and demanding in terms of professional expertise within a team – far more so than the head coach. While the Bundesliga may introduce numerous young, relatively unknown coaches each season, its sporting directors are almost exclusively former star players.

Bayern Munich is a strange and fascinating " world ".

Compared to Salihamidzic, Oliver Kahn was even more formidable. He was a legend, one of the best goalkeepers in the world of his generation. Although he hailed from Karlsruhe, Kahn's peak career was closely associated with Bayern. He was a leader, an icon, rather than just a pure star. Yet Kahn had to leave, right after Bayern won the Bundesliga title, in a turn of events that couldn't have been more dramatic.

Previously, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, another former star player, returned to Bayern as an advisor to the executive board. The title isn't particularly important, but Rummenigge's presence naturally implies he's a powerful figure. The dismissals of Kahn and Salihamidzic were Rummenigge's decisions. He was formerly the CEO, and generally speaking, one of the most famous and powerful names in Bayern's history.

There is only one figure more famous and powerful than Rummenigge: Uli Hoeness. A former player, not quite as talented as the stars around him, Hoeness always knew exactly what he needed and what to do to achieve his goals. Retiring very early, he became Bayern's commercial director at the age of 27, then rose to become president of the club. It could have been said "Hoeness is Bayern" if he hadn't unexpectedly gone to prison for tax evasion in 2014. After his release, he ran again and returned to the presidency of Bayern Munich, simply because he had no rivals. In 2019, he celebrated 40 years of leading Bayern. The club has 1,000 employees and revenue of 657 million euros. When Hoeness first started, Bayern had 12 employees, revenue of 12 million marks, and debt of 8 million marks!

After that milestone of 40 years at the helm, Hoeness retired. But the dismissals of Kahn and Salihamidzic show that Hoeness never truly left Bayern. He orchestrated Rummenigge's return and even gave an interview explaining the two dismissals. According to him, Kahn only called Hoeness five times over two years. "He had too many assistants and did too little direct work," Hoeness clarified. This should be understood as: calling the "godfather" too little means doing too little work! Hoeness always favored Salihamidzic. But whenever Kahn was dismissed, Salihamidzic also had to leave as a consequence. Rummenigge and Jan-Christian Dreesen (the former financial director) shared the work left by Kahn. Neither of them wanted to work with Salihamidzic.

The person who works best with Rummenigge at Bayern right now is head coach Thomas Tuchel. Therefore, Tuchel is predicted to have a very favorable summer in strengthening the squad and reforming Bayern according to his professional vision. The issue here is not just the ample transfer budget, but the support from those above, allowing Tuchel to operate more freely than his predecessors.

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