Daily Schmankerl: Pep’s “brutal” time at Bayern; a Nabil Fekir update; and MORE!

Pep doing Pep stuff: “Bayern is a brutal club” (Sport 1)

Pep Guardiola sat down with Sport 1 to talk over FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, the World Cup and other subjects, but the Catalan used the word “brutal” to describe his time in Munich.

Not really sure brutal is the word Guardiola wanted to blurt out here, but maybe? I don’t know. Maybe he meant it was brutal not to win? I honestly can’t tell. To solve this mystery, I enlisted the services of Bavarian Football Works Master of Puppets, noted linguist, and long-suffering Oakland A’s fan, John N. Dillon to help.

Pep said of his time with Bayern Munich,

My time in Munich will not be judged by the fact that I did not win the Champions League. It’s a brutal club, with players who are all my friends. We all wanted the title, but there were so many factors that influenced that.

Here is John N. Dillon’s analysis:

Well, if you take the square root of Pep’s obtuseness and divide that by 1000 Dantes, multiply that by 4-2-3-1, then run it through an auto-translator set to scramble, you’ll find that “brutal” is just another word for awesome for people who speak Spanish (or Catalan).

BFW postseason breakdown poll results (BavarianFootballWorks.com)

Last month we ran a series of posts as our year-end breakdown and the poll results are in!

Most Valuable Player

• Gold: James Rodriguez
• Silver: Joshua Kimmich
• Bronze: Thomas Müller

Most Outstanding Player

• Gold: Joshua Kimmich
• Silver: Sven Ulreich
• Bronze: Kingsley Coman

Most Improved Player:

• Gold: Sven Ulreich
• Silver: James Rodriguez
• Bronze: Kingsley Coman

Player We Are Most Excited to Watch Next Season:

• Gold: Leon Goretzka
• Silver: Serge Gnabry
• Bronze: Kingsley Coman

The Player We Most Want to Transfer In:

• Gold: Timo Werner
• Silver: Paulo Dybala
• Bronze: Gareth Bale

Most Outstanding Commenter

• Gold: Markopolo
• Silver: Ineednoname
• Bronze: Bayern München

Alleged Bayern target Nabil Fekir to sign with Liverpool or not...or maybe (L’Equipe and The Sun)

Transfer season is a dumpster fire. Either you are team L’Equipe or Team Sun on this one. L’Equipe is reporting that Nabil Fekir has agreed to a deal with Liverpool.

Lyon striker Nabil Fekir has agreed to terms with Liverpool. He must have his medical exam by Friday. The transfer fee for the transaction, recorded by the two clubs, would be 65 million euros.

The Sun, however, has published a conflicting report where Lyon “categorically deny” any deal based on a tweet from Lyon itself.

French newspaper L’Equipe reported that the France international would have a medical on Friday to complete a move worth €65m and another €7m in add-on clauses. However, this information appears to be wide of the mark.

The tweet from Lyon is below:

The information about the transfer of Nabil Fekir is false. Olympique Lyonnais categorically denies the false information disseminated by many media outlets about the transfer of Nabil Fekir to Liverpool.

Anyway, you can probably scratch Fekir off of your Bayern wish list...if he was even on there to begin with.

Luca Toni wants Bayern to buy Mauro Icardi (Goal)

Retired Italian striker and former Bayern man Luca Toni thinks the club should allow Robert Lewandowski walk away if he wants to leave.

Bayern Munich should sell Robert Lewandowski and buy Inter star Mauro Icardi to replace him, according to former striker Luca Toni. The 41-year-old sees no reason for Bayern to hold Lewandowski back if he wants to go, telling Sport Bild: “If a player wants to go, you should let him go.”

To replace Lewandowski’s production, Toni has an idea of who might be able to fill the Pole’s boots.

And the former Juventus No.9 is confident that a suitable successor is already lying in wait, with Icardi being linked with a move away from Inter again after his 29-goal season in Serie A. ”Mauro Icardi from Inter would be perfect for Bayern, he is very strong and younger,” he said of the 25-year-old.

Bayern strikes deal with LATAM digital sports content and media provider (FCBayern.com)

Always looking for a way to expands its brand, Bayern is seeking to make further in-roads with Latin America via a partnership with the Perform Group.

FC Bayern Munich and leading digital sports content and media group, Perform Group have today announced a unique content and sales partnership, focusing on Latin America, giving brands the opportunity to engage with one of the world’s most iconic sports teams as well as gaining access to the media group’s platforms.

It seems to be a partnership that should help Die Roten build its marketing reach within the region per Bayern Munich’s President of the Americas, Rudolf Vidal.

FC Bayern has over 100 million followers in the Americas. Through Perform’s digital reach in Central and South America coupled with their support in forming mutually beneficial brand partnerships, we will be able to better connect with our fans in that region.

For Perform, the feeling is that Bayern has ample opportunity to grow within Latin America according to CEO Juan Delgado.

We’re thrilled to be joining forces with FC Bayern to help grow their presence in Latin America – a market in which Perform has had continued growth and success both in sales and content delivery. Our partnership will enable FC Bayern to connect with a plethora of consumers and brands due to the number of high profile LATAM players the team carries,” added .

Finally, the plan for Perform to execute on behalf of Bayern appears to follow the still-developing North American model.

FC Bayern opened its first international office in 2014, based in New York to service the Americas with primary focus on building the infrastructure in North America and then replicating the model in Latin America. The club aims to build presence and increase the fan base in LATAM through local language digital platforms and mutually beneficial partnerships.