FC Bayern Munich
Javi Martinez follows up on ex-coach Niko Kovac
Nico Kovac and Javier Martinez (r.)
© Imago Images
Javi Martinez and Niko Kovac didn’t get along very well at Bayern Munich. The Spaniard now followed up on his ex-coach in an interview.
Javi Martinez has criticized his former coach Niko Kovac. The German-Croatian’s training methods during his time at Bayern were confusing for many players.
“Under Niko Kovac we always had to ride our bikes for 40 minutes before and after each training session. At some point we questioned the coach’s training methods,” said Martinez in the Twitch stream by journalist Gerard Romero.
It went so far that the players were no longer clear “whether we were actually preparing for the league or the Tour de France,” said Martinez.
Kovac was Martinez’s coach at Bayern Munich between summer 2018 and autumn 2019. After he had won the double with the team in his first season, but Bayern kept shaking under him, he was dismissed at the beginning of November as a result of a 1:5 smack at Eintracht Frankfurt. Under Kovac’s successor and former assistant coach Hansi Flick, FCB then won all six possible titles in European club football.
Kovac last worked for AS Monaco in Ligue 1. After a strong debut season, in which he formed a European Cup participant from the Monegasque, who were threatened with relegation the previous season, he was also kicked out in the principality at the beginning of the year. Rumors are currently circulating that Kovac is being discussed as the successor to Adi Hütter at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Martinez transfer to Bayern Munich in 2012? “Was an important sign”
His critic Javi Martinez played for Munich for a total of nine years and played 268 competitive games during this time. He came to Bayern Munich in 2012 at the urging of then-coach Jupp Heynckes for a record fee and was to become the key player on the way to the first treble in the club’s history in 2013.
“His transfer was an important sign both internally and externally that FC Bayern is in a state of exhaustion,” said former Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recently.
Last summer, 33-year-old Bayern title collector Martinez joined Qatar SC on a free transfer.