Per Mertesacker’s grandmother once helped thwart a move to Bayern Munich

Per Mertesacker enjoyed a long and storied career playing for Germany and also for clubs such as Hannover 96, Werder Bremen, and Arsenal.

Given his success over the years, it has sometimes been asked why the big man never had a stint with Bayern Munich. Thanks to an appearance on a podcast with Bild reporter Kai Traemann (quotes captured by Goal), Mertesacker detailed why he never joined Die Roten and how some members of his family influenced that decision.

When I played for Hannover I had several offers, also - as I have been told - from Hamburg, Bremen and Bayern. Back then I already was a German international and Bayern would have loved to have the complete German national team.

But Bremen with [Tim] Borowski, [Torsten] Frings, [Miroslav] Klose and [Frank] Baumann also had some German internationals, which was more attractive for me. I still lived at home with my parents at 20/21 so the family was still close and I preferred that. And back then Bremen had the reputation for helping young players make their next step!

But maybe I didn’t make the move because my granny said: ‘Bayern doesn’t work at all’. She didn’t like Bayern and died before I made a move. I guess she would have turned in her grave and said: ‘Not with me!’

Mertesacker, of course, made out pretty well for himself despite shunning Bayern and is now the Academy Manger for Arsenal.