Jerome Boateng’s future with Bayern uncertain

Jerome Boateng is unhappy with Carlo Ancelotti’s regime and wants answers. After finding himself on the bench one of the most important games of the season, Boateng is now seeking discussions with Ancelotti and the club management to learn what his standing in the club is.

It came as a surprise to many that Jerome Boateng did not start Bayern’s crucial DFB-Pokal semifinal match against Borussia Dortmund, despite his recovery from injury. Coach Carlo Ancelotti opted instead to start the center-back tandem of Mats Hummels and Javi Martinez. Boateng entered the match as a substitute at the hour mark, and only after Hummels had suffered a muscle injury.

Bayern extended Boateng’s contract until 2021 to great fanfare in 2015 (along with Thomas Muller, Javi Martinez, and Xabi Alonso). As a key senior player on the German national team, it is essential for Boateng to be a starter, but that status now seems uncertain. The imminent arrival of Niklas Süle, throwing yet another potential starting center-back into the mix, complicates the question.

Whether Bayern’s management still see a future with Boateng is an open question. Boateng was named Germany’s “Footballer of the Year” in 2016, but Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s impatience with the star bubbled to the surface shortly afterward, when he criticized Boateng for his many PR engagements and suggested he come “back to earth.” Now it suddenly seems uncertain whether he will even come back to Bayern.