Players like Max Kruse and Niklas Süle choose money over sporting success when they change clubs. It’s a big threat to football.
The Winter Olympics have started with the opening ceremony in Beijing and great hopes for a medal – but the Bundesliga is at least as exciting this weekend.
A worrying trend
After two weeks without playing, we continue. And how. FC Bayern welcomes RB Leipzig in the top game on Saturday evening. Second-placed Borussia Dortmund will play third-placed Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.
There are also highly emotional discussions about this week’s transfer decisions. No wonder, since they reveal a worrying trend.
Former national player Max Kruse decided against sporting success, a possible cup win and possible qualification for the Champions League by leaving fourth-placed Union Berlin. At VfL Wolfsburg he gets more money – but will fight against relegation in the future.
This is accompanied by a fatal signal.
Süle decided against the title
Sporting success is irrelevant to Kruse. You have to give him credit for at least honestly justifying his move. On the other hand, as a Union Berlin fan, I can’t buy anything from it.
I might have bought a Max Kruse jersey over the course of the very successful year and a half – and then it’s gone from one day to the next. What do I do with my jersey? I’ll probably throw this in the corner.
National player Niklas Süle also decided not to accept a contract offer from FC Bayern and to leave the club on a free transfer in the summer. Where to is still unclear. On the other hand, it is already clear that he has also decided against sporting success and for more money. Because there is no club in Europe where he has such a title guarantee as with Bayern.
BVB change unimaginable
The championship every year, the cup almost every year – and possibly the Champions League every few years: Süle deliberately and voluntarily renounces these titles. Because neither Real Madrid and FC Barcelona can offer them – nor English clubs like Manchester City or Liverpool FC, who take national trophies away from each other.
And certainly not Newcastle United, who are said to be interested.
With all these clubs, however, Süle can probably earn more money than Bayern offered him. A change within the Bundesliga to Borussia Dortmund could only be explained by the fact that BVB makes a higher salary easy. I can’t imagine that.
Bayern have acted consistently
The farewell to Niklas Süle is not a mega loss for Bayern. What hurts at most is the fact that after Jérôme Boateng, David Alaba and Javi Martinez, it is the fourth player in six months to go for free and not pay a transfer fee.
Nevertheless, this personnel speaks for FC Bayern. He didn’t fuss, but said: “That’s our offer, you’re worth this sum to us. But we won’t bend over backwards and go over it.”
Players then like to use a lack of appreciation as an argument. The way I see it, they see it on their bank statement every month. In the case of Süle, there is also the high regard of coach Julian Nagelsmann, whom he already knew from the Hoffenheim times.
Appreciate each other: Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann (left) and Niklas Süle. (Source: Passion2Press/imago images)
That’s why Bayern’s behavior is consistent, correct and also evidence of a new strategy that is becoming increasingly clear.
With the top performers, FC Bayern is of course reaching out to extend the contracts – as will also be the case with Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller (Read here what coach Nagelsmann says about Müller’s future). But he doesn’t keep stars at any price either, but sets a limit. That’s a signal to our own players, but also to Europe: “We don’t go along with everything here and we don’t pay 30 million euros or more a year.” Instead, Bayern is now really focusing more and more consistently on its own youth.
Free transfer means earnest money
Those responsible have given the only 16-year-old Paul Wanner a long-term contract. 18-year-old Jamal Musiala is an integral part of the regular team and 19-year-old Malik Tillman has already played seven competitive games this season.
A free transfer like that of Süle always benefits the player financially. When my contract expires and my future club saves the transfer fee, I can not only ask for a higher salary – I can also collect a generous fee for my signature.
The national player at the time, Sebastian Deisler, had the sum of 20 million marks transferred to his account in 2001 for signing with Bayern. Those petty cashes haven’t necessarily gotten any smaller in recent years.
Danger and opportunity for clubs
The world champion Kylian Mbappé will move from Paris St. Germain to Real Madrid on a free transfer in the summer and is said to receive 40 million euros in signing money – that would be a record. Loser in this case: PSG.
France’s top star Kylian Mbappé is about to make a free transfer from Paris St. Germain to Real Madrid. (Source: Le Pictorium/imago images)
The club paid around 180 million euros four years ago and now doesn’t see a penny. And: He hasn’t won the Champions League with Mbappé to date – the title that you really wanted to get with the commitment.
This shows that for the clubs this is both a danger and an opportunity to get free players again. Of course, they then have the choice between different employers.
The clubs sometimes try to sell the players half a year before the end of the contract, as Gladbach did with Denis Zakaria (Juventus).
Players don’t care
Teammate Matthias Ginter, on the other hand, will stay until the end of the season and will no longer bring a fee. Crucial here too: If the player does not participate, the club is in a fix. And: On both sides – especially with the clubs also due to corona – it’s all about money.
This trend is a major threat to football because it accelerates alienation from fans. If more and more players play for a higher salary instead of success and titles, then that robs football of credibility and shakes the very foundations of the sport.
Players don’t care if they leave a club and they don’t get a transfer fee – and apparently many don’t care either. But this is where the true face of a player always shows and you shouldn’t underestimate that. The next one whose true face will be revealed is Dortmund striker Erling Haaland.
The true face of Haaland
He has a contract until 2024 and this summer the opportunity to leave BVB for a fixed €75 million. He can pull this clause until around the end of May and show that he doesn’t care about the club, the squad planning and the fans.
At Erling Haaland, the decision about the future is pending. It’s not just about how it turns out. For Stefan Effenberg, it is particularly important when the Norwegian announces it. (Source: foto2press/imago images)
Or he creates facts very quickly now, gives the club the opportunity to position itself adequately for the time after his departure – and finally gives the fans an answer to their most pressing question. After all, he indicated that he wanted to do this.
Free transfers, money instead of success – that certainly fits into the development that football is becoming ever further away from the fans. There are many other examples of this. The price increase of the streaming service DAZN. The TV rights award, which demands so many subscriptions from a fan that he sometimes has to pay around a thousand euros a year to be able to see all the games of his favorite club.
It’s not good for football
Ticket prices have exploded over the years. There are also corona-related factors that prevent, for example, public training sessions, autograph sessions and much-needed closeness to fans. The DFB is very familiar with it, even if there was a lack of proximity to the supporters even before the pandemic. The credibility of the association has suffered so much in recent years that the spectators have had little interest in visiting the stadium anyway.
So now the club changes from Süle or Kruse are added, which put a strain on the relationship with the fans.
Of course, you have to look at each change individually. However, the decisions made by the two are not good for football. That much is certain.