Update: Bayern Munich hoping that Lucas Hernandez can convince Rodri to join

According to a new report by Sport Bild, Bayern Munich are pursuing Atletico Madrid star Rodrigo Hernandez, commonly known as Rodri. The 22-year-old defensive midfielder suits the profile coveted by the Bavarians, but they face competition from Manchester City and Barcelona for the Spaniard's signature.

According to the report, negotiations for Rodri was the reason why sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic held a secret meeting in Madrid a few weeks ago. Bayern are looking for a new ball-playing defensive midfielder, and have identified the Atletico Madrid star as a primary target. The player has a rumored release clause of around 70m euros.

Interestingly, this report by Sport Bild comes hot on the heels of a kicker report from yesterday alleging the exact same thing. Where there's smoke, there's fire — and if two of Germany's biggest sporting outlets agree on something, then there's probably something to it. The issue here is that Manchester City are already in advanced talks for Rodri, and may be ahead in the race to sign him.

Bayern are rich, but City are backed by the multiple billions of an oil-Sheikh. It will be difficult for the club to compete if the financial package offered by City ends up being too high for the player to refuse. On the other hand, there is also Bayern's alleged "good relationship" with Atletico Madrid — something that came up a lot when Lucas Hernandez was about to make his move. Maybe Atletico could intercede on our behalf? That's probably wishful thinking — they're more likely to start a bidding war.

Last, but not least, we have this curious tweet from Honigstein:

He says that the reason Brazzo was in Madrid was to sign James Rodriguez from Real Madrid and sell him to Atletico for a profit. We’ve heard that rumor before. Considering that it came from an absolute joke of a source (El Chiringuito), it's not impossible that Honigstein may be trolling us all.

Be that as it may, it's an exciting time to be a Bayern Munich fan. Being linked with good players is always a great feeling, and Rodri is certainly a good player.

Update

According to Madrid-based paper AS, Bayern Munich hope their new signing Lucas Hernandez can convince his former teammate Rodri to follow him to the Allianz Arena. Usually we’d say that this is utter nonsense — but some very strange things have happened this season, with Benjamin Pavard even admitting that he sent Lucas texts encouraging him to join Bayern. The idea of Lucas turning player-agent isn’t even that far-fetched.