Bayern Munich have been the target of criticism from their former stars following a team-building weekend in Ibiza, staged just after Saturday’s Bundesliga defeat at Mainz (3-1).
Already German champions for the tenth consecutive year, Bavarian players stayed on the Spanish island for two days, a trip to “strengthen the collective” commented sports director Hasan Salihamidzic.
But this trip, organized just after the fifth defeat of the season in the league, did not please former midfielder Lothar Matthäus, according to whom this trip had “no reason to be”. “Especially after a match like this,” he added on Sky.
Anticipated “holidays”, well-deserved reviews?
1990 world champion Matthäus blasted the players for “going on holiday” as Bavarian fans were unhappy with Saturday’s performance. According to him, coach Julian Nagelsmann should have put his veto. An opinion shared by former Bayern technician Felix Magath, who would “not have authorized such a trip”.
“I don’t know how a team can say: for us, the season ends three weeks earlier,” asked the 68-year-old coach, now at the head of Hertha Berlin. According to the German press, not all the players were present. Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Kingsley Coman, Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer were missing. What about Jean-Michel Blanquer?