“They are the best”, proclaims the anthem of the Champions League. Not always on the sports field, a little more often when it comes to making the headlines of the sports press. Tuesday, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern, the 2.0 version of PSG-Barça since the Catalans have a Europa League level, find themselves in the round of 16 first leg of C1. Neither of the two protagonists can boast of tackling the double confrontation in an atmosphere of absolute peace and serenity, but each in his own way strives to entertain his audience by delivering a daily quality show. In Paris as in Munich, the group does not live so well, an old tradition for two clubs accustomed to washing their dirty linen in public.
In Munich, the Manuel Neuer case
FC Hollywood at heart. Since the 90s, when Bayern Munich inherited the unflattering label because of countless internal escapades, the drama has never really left Bavaria. And this season, the Bavarian scriptwriters decided that the plot would take place in a snowy setting.
Synopsis : Affected by a disgusting World Cup, with another elimination in the group stage, the goalkeeper decides to go skiing “to clear his head”. Things obviously don’t go as planned, Neuer breaks his leg and will have a whole end of the season to think about. In Bavaria, there is panic: it will now be necessary to find a replacement for the captain.
Our review: money, betrayal and power on the menu. The German cast is a little dusty and does not deserve more than a place on France 3, in the afternoon, despite well-written dialogues.
Summary of the film (warning, spoilers): The transfer window will not be the hardest part. Yann Sommer is recruited for 8 million euros, far from being a mountain for a club in full financial health. But the German press still wonders if Neuer deserves to pay in part for the transfer of his replacement given the nature of the injury. It was enough to bring out of his hinges the sulphurous ex-president Uli Hoeness, who will ask all these beautiful people not to forget the accomplishments of his friend Manuel at Bayern Munich.
In fact, more or less everyone at the club, at least in public, initially defends their goalkeeper, as explained by Patrick Guillou, doctor of the Bundesliga at the microphone of beIN Sports: “Nagelsmann is stepping up to the plate by refusing to incriminate his player because he himself skis, by saying that it is difficult to prohibit players from an activity that you practice yourself… It works out rather well at the start. »
Neuer, the heart torn out (and the salty fine)
But there’s no Hollywood movie without a plot-twist, so Bayern Munich fires goalkeeping coach and Neuer’s best man, Toni Tapalovic. “I felt like my heart was being ripped out. [rien que ça]this is the most brutal thing I have experienced in my career, will complain, at the beginning of February, the Bavarian star at The Athletic […] For me, it came out of nowhere. ” Well, not exactly. The official story is that Tapalovic swung some players the content of private discussions of the staff of Julian Nagelsmann, which would have tasted very little the young coach.
In the space of two interviews given without the approval of the club, Manuel Neuer has therefore gone from great lord with mention very classy welcome from Yann Sommer, to pariah. Oliver Kahn but also Hasan Salihamidzic stepped up. “I understand that Manuel is affected personally. But as captain, I would have expected a different attitude from him,” castigated the sporting director. A very Football Manager reaction in the text, but not as much as the XXL fine awaiting Neuer, according to the German press: one month’s gross salary, or 1.6 million euros. The interview is expensive. Patrick Guillou: “The club felt that he should have behaved differently, as a player and captain. There, he attacked the institution, and that’s why it went wrong in the eyes of Bayern. In Germany, it is not yet the republic of players. »
In the same series, you will also like:
– Serge Gnabry at Fashion Week on a day off. “It’s amateurism, exactly what Bayern is not, will shoot Salihamidzic. A free day is made for resting, to be able to give it your all for the next match. »
– Leroy Sané leaves in the 77th of the match against Bochum without greeting Nagelsmann and going directly to the locker room before taking a breather from Kahn and Salihamidzic, very comfortable in his role of bogeyman.
– (Older, 2020) A trainer from the training center is accused of creating a racist and homophobic climate before being fired, all of which prompting the opening of an internal investigation.
– (Even older, 2015) Baston Boateng vs Lewandowski in training after Champions League elimination.
– (Prehistoric, 90s) Stefan Effenberg had left his wife for that of a teammate, Lothar Matthaus once told a Dutch tourist, “Hitler should have crushed you”, fights between the same Matthaus and Lizarazu broke out at training, Giovanni Trapattoni blew a fuse in a press conference… non-exhaustive list.
“If you look at all the stories, it’s about men’s problems on the Bayern side, tempers Guillou. On the strategic side, the sports policy, on the other hand, everything is always thought out, thought out two, three years in advance. The first word we think of when we think of Bayern is ”competence””.
In Paris, a successful Telenovela
Not sure that we can say the same thing about PSG, where everything is going down the drain more than ever. Even Galtier recognizes this: “if I weren’t worried, it would be serious”. If Bayern is FC Hollywood, Paris has the dramaturgical regularity of a Brazilian blockbuster, like Telenovela broadcast on TV Globo since the end of the military regime. It’s simple, there are too many seasons, too many episodes for our meager brains to be able to store everything. Small listing of the latest adventures:
S2023E04: Parisian players and dangerous supporters: The Parisian Titanic hits the Monaco rock and sinks (3-1) to Louis II, after another infamous performance. In a final burst of panache, Gigio Donnarumma wishes to salute Parisian ultras who are particularly upbeat, which Marquinhos advises him not to do, who seemed, with supporting images, to have done the same with Vitinha and Soler. The Parisian goalkeeper will still face the supporters alone, whom Messi and Neymar have always shunned since the post-recovery bronca of Real Madrid, last year. Egos so big, but so fragile when it comes to being accountable to those who encourage them in the four corners of the continent.
S2023E03: Neymar sucks, but turns everyone on: The tone would have risen between Neymar and Ekitike as well as Vitinha throughout the match against Monaco, then between the Brazilian and Luis Campos. With Marquinhos – definitely in all the good moves – in the role of support for Ney. The fault of the Portuguese? Having reframed the group after the team’s infamous performance on the rock by accusing it of a “lack of aggressiveness”, which would not have been to the taste of Neymar, for whom the problem lay elsewhere. The exchange would have been lively and rather long, which the Brazilian did not deny the day before the match. “There was a discussion, but no argument. A question remains. Any Neymar that we can be, what legitimacy to yell all the time can a player have who has not put one foot in front of the other since his promising pre-Cup quarter?
S2023E02: Neymar, loud parties and neighborhood complaints: In Bougival, Ney’s place of residence since 2017, we are starting to get fed up with the Brazilian’s Latina radio evenings. The latest, on the occasion of the player’s birthday, February 5, seems to have overflowed an already full cup, reveals The Parisian. Mayor (SE) Luc Wattelle reacted strongly to this “tremendously annoying” behavior, while saying he was helpless in the face of the situation. “” We can verbalize, but what do you do against someone who does not care royally to pay 135 euros in fine given what he earns? »
S2023E01: A great backup player! Oh actually no: A major difference between Bayern Munich and PSG, the German club is still ten steps ahead and, even when its goalkeeper breaks down on skis, always finds plans B. Luis Campos meanwhile failed to bring Skriniar from the start. winter, and preferred to wake up at the last minute of the winter transfer window to try it with Ziyech. Everything was dealt, but Chelsea played dazed by sending the wrong document several times to PSG when time was running out, causing the transfer to fall through, subject to a deadline. A problem that would probably never have existed if Paris had taken it on time.
In the same genre, you will also like:
- The accusations of all kinds that fall on Nasser Al-Khelaifi, starting with those of Tayeb Benabderrahmane. The lobbyist says he was incarcerated for six months and tortured in Qatar, then placed under house arrest and finally allowed to leave in November 2020, after agreeing to sign a protocol in which he pledged not to disclose “sensitive” documents on the leader of Paris Saint-Germain. In the radius of sensitive cases, but more recently, a preliminary investigation for concealed work was opened in mid-January after a complaint against PSG filed by a Tunisian businessman, a former close friend of the club’s president, Nasser Al Khelaïfi.
- The departure of Jean-Claude Blanc: pretty much the only man capable of thoughtful decisions within the institution and present since the start of the QSI project. The fact that the boat is rocking a month after it left becomes almost symbolic.
Paris, Bayern, to whom the palm of the drama?
For Patrick Guillou, there is no need to compare “these two clubs which are not alike”, except on one point. “The media magnifying effect, the pressure of public opinion gives the particularity of transforming sparrow droppings into elephant shit. There are things and situations that exist elsewhere but are easier to manage in other clubs. » Or, as Uli Hoeness puts it so well : “It is the problem of the media treatment of Bayern. Once you have solved one problem, you have to find the next one. »
With a major difference compared to PSG. The German club has always been able to ignore internal bickering to lift the big-eared cup once or twice a decade and ensure a certain respectability. In the Parisian film, the happy ending still does not exist, and it is the hope aroused by each extension of Mbappé or new post-elimination transfer to C1 that makes the salt of the telenovela.
Victory: PSG. For once.