In the course of the personnel quake at FC Bayern, the long-standing CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was brought back into charge. The 67-year-old sees himself in the role of an adviser for the record champions.
“What I won’t do is intervene operationally,” Rummenigge said in an interview with the “Deutsche Presse-Agentur” on Wednesday.
After the severe leadership quake with the replacement of CEO Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic, the Lippstadt native was appointed to the new nine-member supervisory board around Honorary President Uli Hoeneß on Tuesday.
Rummenigge thus complied with a request from President Herbert Hainer and his companion Hoeneß.
“Now I feel the need to stand by the club where I’ve spent 40 years of my life as a player, vice-president and CEO,” said the former international.
“Number nine is a position that FC Bayern will be looking at”
Rummenigge hopes that after the appointment of Jan-Christian Dreesen as Kahn’s successor, the supervisory board will be able to “quickly present a solution” in the search for a new sports director or sports director.
After the turbulence of the past few months, it is important “that calm returns to the club quickly”. FC Bayern has always been successful as a “unit”. You have to “create a hierarchy in the team again”, like when you won the Champions League in 2020.
“You don’t always have to blow hundreds of millions of euros into the transfer market. Rather, it has to be a functional team,” commented Rummenigge on the demands for new, expensive stars.
However, the former world-class attacker sees a need for a new center forward of international stature: “The number ninth will definitely be a position that FC Bayern will be looking at.”
Nevertheless, you don’t always have to “just reach for the top shelf” with newcomers. And one shouldn’t forget that Robert Lewandowski, who switched to FC Barcelona a year ago, was “the world footballer in this position” in the team.
FC Bayern: Rummenigge raves about Dreesen
Rummenigge is also convinced that Jan-Christian Dreesen will be a successful CEO at FC Bayern as the successor to Oliver Kahn.
“I think Jan-Christian is 100 percent qualified. And I also think he’s absolutely the right man to get the big ship Bayern Munich back on course,” emphasized Rummenigge.
The 55-year-old Dreesen had successfully led the record champions through the Corona crisis as CFO, among other things.
Rummenigge doesn’t want to say “anything negative” about Kahn
Rummenigge “didn’t want to say anything negative” about Kahn, who had replaced him as CEO two years ago and now had to leave prematurely.
He has felt “great gratitude” towards the former international goalkeeper since 2001. Back then, Kahn saved three penalties in a shoot-out and was the decisive player in FC Bayern’s first Champions League triumph in the final against FC Valencia. “We wouldn’t have won without Oliver Kahn. That’s why we’re all grateful to him and always will be.”
Dreesen is now at the top of the club “for a paradigm shift,” explained Rummenigge: “The club has been managed or led by former players for decades, Franz Beckenbauer, Uli Hoeneß, myself. Jan-Christian is originally a financial expert, was previously on the bank board.”