Fit central defenders are an important currency at FC Bayern right now, so Thomas Tuchel knocked three times on the wooden table in front of him, pokpokpok. Dayot Upamecano and Min-jae Kim are currently healthy. “Toi, toi, toi,” said the coach, who can go into Sunday’s Bundesliga game against SC Freiburg (5:30 p.m.) with a complete defensive formation. Two fit central defenders, that’s two more than recently in the cup at Preußen Münster, when Matthijs de Ligt, Upamecano and Kim were also missing and Tuchel was forced to call up midfielder Leon Goretzka and full-back Noussair Mazraoui in the center.
Fit central defenders are not only beneficial for Tuchel, but to a certain extent also politically beneficial for the entire club – and thus for Jérôme Boateng, the former world champion and long-time Bayern professional, who has been training since Sunday under the impression of this “absolute emergency situation” (Tuchel). Säbener Straße was allowed to participate. In the hope that the Munich team will offer their former defender another contract, even if just for a few months.
But the emergency is obviously no longer so blatant that the club is offering a contract to a defender without a club who has “trained well” but is privately heading for the next court case. “We’re smarter than before,” Tuchel said on Friday, which wasn’t particularly good news for Boateng.
They reported on Friday morning Picture and Skythat a decision had been made against Boateng. In the late afternoon, after another conversation with the club management, in the presence of coach Tuchel, the official cancellation came. The personnel situation has “relaxed” and the club has informed Boateng of the decision. However, as a “deserved player of the club” he can continue to train at FC Bayern and keep fit.
The decision “doesn’t just have a sporting component,” says Tuchel
Bayern are taking a bit of a risk in terms of sport. They hope that Upamecano (recent pubic bone problems) and Kim (recent muscular problems) will stay healthy for the time being, and that it won’t be long before de Ligt can return to the team either. Three experienced central defenders are not a large number until the winter break, but it can work. The club also signed a professional contract until 2027 with the young Frans Krätzig, born in 2003, on Friday. He can play full-back, at least.
Conversely, this means: No contract for Boateng – and one less public target for the club. Ultimately, the decision “doesn’t just have a sporting component,” said Tuchel, who made it clear that Boateng could have helped the team from a purely sporting perspective – even if only as a backup for emergencies like in Münster. But not in the overall balance. In 2022, Boateng was sentenced to a fine of 1.2 million euros for bodily harm and insults against his ex-girlfriend, and this process will be reopened. There will be headlines, pictures of Boateng in the dock. Outcome uncertain.
The public criticism of the surprising training guest was correspondingly loud this week – and simply sitting out such a wave of criticism, as has often been the case in previous situations (keyword Qatar sponsorship), was out of the question this time. So it’s better without Boateng – and with a little superstition through the rest of the season that everything will go well. Pokpokpok.