“It would have been necessary”
Ex-Bayern star taunts the record champions
January 5, 2025 – 9:21 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
A former Bayern star surprisingly criticizes his former club. Sharp words are spoken about, especially because of how he deals with a young talent.
In 2013, Javi Martínez won the treble with FC Bayern, and the 36-year-old now plays for SC Qatar. Now he has spoken out and sharply criticized his former club in an interview with the Spanish “Marca”. The focus is on how the Munich team deals with his compatriot Bryan Zaragoza.
The 23-year-old winger moved to Munich in February 2024, but only made seven competitive appearances there before being loaned out to CA Osasuna in the summer. He now shines there with strong performances and even returned to the Spanish national team.
The start in Germany under then coach Thomas Tuchel was anything but smooth, as Zaragoza himself revealed in a conversation with the Spanish platform “Relevo” months ago. He felt enormous pressure from media reports that denounced his alleged lack of language skills. “I don’t get it, I am the way I am. But my parents suffered a lot from it,” he said. Read more about this here.
Martínez showed understanding for Zaragoza’s difficult situation and sees the German record champions as responsible. “I spoke to him and told him to be patient because it was a big step,” explained the 36-year-old. But he also emphasized that the club should have offered support. “I think it would have been necessary to organize a translator or something to help him in German,” said Martínez.
For him, getting used to Munich was much easier. The Spaniard celebrated the treble with Bayern in his first season and played a total of 268 competitive games for the club. What connects him to Zaragoza is not only their shared nationality, but also the experience of moving to Germany.
Despite the rocky start, things are going better for Zaragoza in Spain, even though a broken metatarsal set him back in December. Martínez praised him specifically: “He’s a star and shows that at Osasuna. Sometimes you have to take a step back to come back stronger. And that’s exactly what he’s doing.”