Of course, the big moments have to be explained by someone big, which is why Uli Köhler stands in front of the garage entrance on Säbener Straße very early on Saturday morning and speaks into his Sky microphone. Although Köhler no longer wears the light blue sunglasses that made him the most famous among the frenzied Munich football reporters for years and through which he saw many important FC Bayern professionals come and go, he now wears a fashionable frame made of horn. But even at 71, he’s still the most dazzling-looking man out there.
On Saturday morning, Koehler is on duty to comment on the farewell to Robert Lewandowski, the farewell to the two-time world footballer, the 41-goal striker who broke the Gerd Müller season record. But the size of the moment, well, it doesn’t really want to come up.
In addition to Köhler, there are six fans. A boy wears a Sadio Mané jersey. Another looks so cautiously enthusiastic, as if Köhler had asked him to be in the picture. Even if a few people join them later: So this is the atmosphere in which one of the most successful strikers in the history of the Bundesliga leaves the country.
FC Bayern agreed with FC Barcelona on the transfer, allegedly for a transfer fee of 45 million euros plus five million possible bonus payments, on Saturday night. The news agencies sent out their reports at 2:05 am. It was as if everyone had really lost patience.
“My story at Bayern is over,” that is the sentence of the transfer summer
Lewandowski, 34 years old in August, has scored 344 goals in 375 games for FC Bayern in eight years, an incredible record. He once scored five goals in nine minutes against Wolfsburg, resulting in one of the most beautiful photos of the inimitable Pep Guardiola as Bayern coach: amazed, gaping, both palms on his bald head. In his late phase, Lewandowski even turned into a pragmatic team player, which is how he became a world footballer.
What always characterized him, however, was a certain coldness, stubborn professionalism. The almost two months of transfer theater at the end took that to the extreme. Even those who still follow football with pure enthusiasm must have been annoyed by Lewandowski’s reports recently. “My story at Bayern is over,” is the most succinct of many sentences during the Bundesliga summer break that either he or his advisor Pini Zahavi said to force a transfer a year before the end of his contract.
During the week Lewandowski showed up for training as expected, but the picture-Zeitung was allowed to count the minutes he was late at the meeting point before the practice sessions every day in enthusiastic elation. On Saturday morning he demonstratively played with his old colleagues again. But the agreement with Barcelona was also made at night to spare Lewandowski the big squad performance in the Allianz Arena in front of well over six fans on Saturday afternoon. Instead of with Bayern, he will tour the USA with FC Barcelona for marketing purposes next week.
Now that the transfer is confirmed, even if it has not yet been confirmed by the clubs, a few questions remain. First of all, those that do not concern FC Bayern: Sure, Lewandowski is the reigning world footballer, but can that go well when a club with almost limitless debts like FC Barcelona presumably equips a 34-year-old with a three-year contract? As one of many multi-million dollar additions, despite all the austerity requirements?
And does Lewandowski actually fit in with a modern-minded coach like Xavi Hernández when he disagreed with a modern-minded coach like Julian Nagelsmann on the tactical definition of a centre-forward? But of course FC Barcelona has to know all that themselves.
Almost at the same time as Lewandowski left, Serge Gnabry extended his contract
As for FC Bayern, it could be interesting how CEO Oliver Kahn will explain for the first time in his young CEO career that a statement from him had a decidedly short half-life. “Basta,” he called out from the town hall balcony at the championship celebration, as in: Basta, Lewandowski stays! And how does Uli Hoeneß actually think that Lewandowski and his advisor Zahavi, called “Piranha” by Hoeneß, have now gotten their way?
Bayern could benefit from the fact that this transfer summer with the German record champions is generally considered a great success and that sports director Hasan Salihamidzic is being showered with recognition. After Sadio Mané, Noussair Mazraoui and Ryan Gravenberch, another top European player is to come to Munich in central defender Matthijs de Ligt to compensate for the departure of Niklas Süle. In Mathys Tel, a 17-year-old striker from Rennes is also on the wish list, as well as possibly Konrad Laimer from RB Leipzig. And then there is the second message from the weekend: National player Serge Gnabry wants to extend his contract and will not leave Bayern.
That leads to the last question: how will Bayern play without Robert Lewandowski? Variable and flexible, that’s something you hear more and more often, so without a new centre-forward for the time being. Sometimes with Mané, sometimes with Gnabry, sometimes with Thomas Müller at the top, maybe with more playing time for the excitingly talented Jamal Musiala.
And at least, with all the boredom at the top of the Bundesliga, that would be something new: FC Bayern without a regular centre-forward, even Uli Köhler has never seen that.