Bundesliga
Officially: No Boateng comeback at Bayern
Jérôme Boateng will probably not get a new contract at FC Bayern. photo
© Tom Weller/dpa
Nothing comes of Jérôme Boateng’s spectacular Bayern comeback. Coach Thomas Tuchel gives insights into the weighing process. The next chance for a new defender is not far away.
FC Bayern Munich has defended itself against a spectacular comeback Jérôme Boateng decided.
The German football champions announced on Friday that the 35-year-old central defender would not return to the squad. Boateng can continue to stay fit at FC Bayern if he wishes. He was said to be in good physical condition.
Coach Thomas Tuchel emphasized two days before the Bundesliga home game against SC Freiburg on Sunday (5.30 p.m./DAZN) that we had to reach a result “together”. “This decision doesn’t just have a sporting component. That’s why it’s important that we decide it together,” said Tuchel about the sensitive and controversially discussed personnel.
The long-time Bayern star Boateng, who was recently in the public eye because of a criminal trial and will inevitably do so again when the proceedings are reopened, has been training repeatedly at Säbener Straße since Sunday this week. By foregoing a commitment, FC Bayern is avoiding further debates because the idea of bringing him back had sparked criticism.
Hope for the return of the central defenders
Boateng was an “extremely deserving player of the club” and had a need to take part in team training sessions, said Tuchel. In addition, FC Bayern had “an absolute emergency situation” due to the failure of the entire central defense in the cup game against Preußen Münster.
“That was the basis. A little time has passed on this basis, we are smarter than before,” said Tuchel. The Munich team announced on Friday that Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt, who had a knee injury, was “on the road to recovery”. And the pubic bone problems are apparently not slowing down defender colleague Dayot Upamecano as much as one had to fear.
“De Ligt is still missing, it’s taking longer than we thought. It’s very sensitive to pain, although Matthijs isn’t actually sensitive to pain,” said Tuchel. “Dayot Upamecano and Minjae Kim are – toi, toi, toi – uninjured.” Tarek Buchmann (18) could gradually become a backup after his torn muscle bundle.
Before the vote against Boateng, Tuchel pointed out that a football club and he, as the person responsible for the sport, would like “that football decisions can simply be football decisions without prejudice or other things.” The defender had already played at FC Bayern from 2011 to 2021.
Boateng is still on trial
The victim advocacy group “Weißer Ring” sharply rejected Bayern’s sports director Christoph Freund’s statement that the court case was Boateng’s “private story”: “Domestic violence is not a private matter, but a massive social problem.”
Most recently, Boateng, who did not receive a new contract at Olympique Lyon after two years, was without a club. Therefore an obligation would have been possible. The next option for a new defender is in winter.
The surprising idea of bringing two-time triple winner Boateng back to FC Bayern had sparked criticism. The public focus has recently been less on the athlete and more on the private citizen Boateng. He is facing a new criminal trial in Bavaria because he is accused of attacking his then partner and mother of his children while on vacation in the summer of 2018. Boateng complains about an unfair trial and a prior conviction.
Because of the allegations, the footballer was sentenced in the second instance last year to a fine of 1.2 million euros for bodily harm and insult. However, the Bavarian Supreme Court recently overturned Boateng’s conviction “in its entirety” due to blatant legal errors. The process is being reopened.