Daily Schmankerl: Milan Škriniar comments on rumors; Bayern’s interest in Nicholas Pépé heats up; and MORE!

Milan Škriniar trying to zone out on all of the transfer rumors swirling around him (Football Italia)

Inter center back and Slovakia international Milan Škriniar is aware of all of the whispers that a certain big, red juggernaut is interested in procuring his services. Aside of Bayern Munich, though, both FC Barcelona and Manchester United (every...damn...rumor) are taking a close look at the defender.

To his credit, Škriniar says he is focused on the work ahead of him at Inter:

I’m not thinking about these things. I just read that, but I’m not thinking about these things. There were these rumors in the summer too but nothing happened in the end and I don’t think anything will happen now. There are a lot of matches with Inter, right after the international break there are important games like the Milan derby and we need to prepare well. Juve are in command in Italy, but we can compete with them. We’re on a good winning run and we’re where we wanted to be at the start of the season. We’ll try to keep this run of results going for as long as possible.

Bayern’s interest in Lille winger Nicholas Pépé (The Mirror)

As we covered back on September 26th, Bayern has interest Lille winger Nicholas Pépé and it may be ramping up a bit as Arsenal and Manchester United (ha! surprise!) also have a key interest in the Ivory Coast international:

Bayern Munich has intensified their interest in Nicolas Pépé in a bid to beat competition from Manchester United and Arsenal for the Lille star. Pépé emerged as a target this month for Unai Emery at the Emirates, following the 23-year-old stunning start to the season in Ligue 1. The Ivorian has struck six goals and as many assists in just nine appearances this term. And Lille are seeing the rewards after investing in Pépé last year to bring him to the club from Angers.

Bayern wants to accelerate talks with a view to beating off the competition by moving early in January, claims Bild, with Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery approaching the end of their illustrious careers.

UPDATE [10:33AM EST]: Oliver Batista Meier AND Flavius Daniliuc named to Next Generation 2018: 60 of the best young talents in world football (The Guardian)

Bayern U19 player Oliver Batista Meier was named to The Guardian’s Next Generation 2018 list. Below is the excerpt from the piece focused on the Bayern youth:

In the summer of 2016 Bayern paid Kaiserslautern around €400,000 for the 15-year-old, clearly feeling that the potential was there. Extremely skilful and with an ability to go past players, he can play across most attacking positions. He is arguably at his best when starting from the left and cutting inside to shoot with his right foot. Played for two Bayern teams last season: the Under-17s (22 goals in 17 games) and Under-19s (11 goals in 24 games).

This year he made his debut for Bayern’s Under-23s and signed a new long-term contract. “Oliver is a big talent,” says Bayern’s sporting director, Hasan Salihamidzic. “We are very happy that we could tie him to the club long term. Our aim is to develop him further.” It is highly probable that Batista Meier will make it to the first-team squad. This year he won the silver Fritz Walter Medal for being one of the best three players in his age group. It will be interesting to see how he copes with the hype.

As for Flavius Daniliuc, here is the capsule review of the 17-year old Austrian’s talent:

Extremely versatile and with good vision, Daniliuc is considered a top prospect of his age group at Bayern, whom he joined in 2015 after a little help from David Alaba. After growing up at Admira and Rapid Vienna, he moved to Real Madrid in 2011 and won the title with the youth team. There he was an attacking midfielder and showed immaculate ball control but he did not settle and felt he was treated badly by some teammates.

Alaba, who had met Daniliuc previously and calls him his “little brother”, offered assistance and helped to bring him to Munich. Now his preferred position is in the centre of defence but he can play at right-back and left-back too, as well as in midfield. He won the German under-17 championship and was invited to train with the first team last season under Carlo Ancelotti. Some muscular problems slowed his progress somewhat but he is expected to join his mentor Alaba in the first team sooner rather than later.

In previous years, other Bayern-related appeared on the list including:

• Alphonso Davies (2017)
• Christian Fruchtl (2017)
• Fabian Benko (2015 - no longer with Bayern)

As you can imagine, there are lot a of familiar names scattered throughout those lists and also some names that we’ll likely never hear from again. As cool as this is for Batista Meier, it’s not as big an honor as being on BFW’s Bavarian Wunderkind Watch.

A call for fan groups (BavarianFootballWorks.com)

We are trying something here at the Daily Schmankerl and need YOUR help. If you read my man Tommy Adams’ piece about his experience with the FCBNYC Fan Club (if you haven’t, SHAME ON YOU!), you could see how great the event was. So we want to highlight some of these wonderful groups that are out there globally and this is what we need from you:

• Name of the group
• Location
• Year founded
• Leadership (if you have people are kind of running the show)
• Meeting place
• Social media handles
• Pictures

I’d LOVE to be able to feature a different fan group every week this season. Maybe we can do it, maybe not...but only YOU can help decide the fate of this idea. Send your info to: barrelsportsblog@gmail.com