Manuel Neuer criticizes FC Bayern for kicking out their goalkeeping coach. Oliver Kahn, CEO of FC Bayern, is therefore now criticizing the currently injured captain.
What Neuer “said in connection with Toni Tapalovic’s release” does “neither do justice to him as captain nor to the values of FC Bayern. In addition, his statements are untimely because we are facing very important games,” said Kahn on Friday evening German press agency.
When asked about Neuer’s motives, Kahn said: “He’s personally affected, you have to understand that to a certain extent. We were also aware of that when we explained to him that the decision that was not taken lightly on the question of the goalkeeper coach was the best at the moment for our team. I was in a similar situation as a national player in 2004. Our goalkeeper coach Sepp Maier felt badly treated by the DFB and they split up. I had worked with Sepp for years and we had a friendly and trusting relationship.” The Munich CEO continued: “I was disappointed at the time too, and I was angry at the DFB. But the common goals were my priority. They were more important to me than my personal feelings. And that’s why I decided back then not to comment publicly. Manuel has now done the opposite.”
The 53-year-old announced talks with the injured goalkeeper. “We will speak to him very clearly about this,” said Kahn. In the interview he had ruled out resigning from the national team. Neuer expressed his disappointment that the German record champions parted ways with long-time goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic. “He didn’t just work for me for eleven and a half years, but for everyone,” explained Neuer. “For me it was a blow when I was already on the ground. I felt like my heart was being ripped out, it was the craziest thing I’ve experienced in my career.”
Manuel Neuer’s interview is reminiscent of the case of Philipp Lahm in 2010. At that time he gave the Süddeutsche Zeitung an interview in which he sharply criticized the club’s management. He accused the management of a lack of strategy in transfer policy and spoke of a lack of sporting identity. Lahm was fined within the club “of a kind that FC Bayern Munich has never seen before,” said then-Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
The interview sparked a big debate at the time about whether leading players should be allowed to publicly criticize their club and purchasing policy. A few weeks after the interview, FC Bayern was surprisingly in the final of the Champions League, which they lost to Inter Milan.