Daily Schmankerl: Matthijs De Ligt down to Bayern Munich and Manchester United?; All of Robert Lewandowski’s Bundesliga goals; James Rodriguez to Napoli?; and MORE!

Barca out on De Ligt? (Sport)

Yesterday we covered how Manchester United was in the process of stealing Ajax center back Matthijs de Ligt away from FC Barcelona and now more information has come into play about why a deal that once looked “thisclose” to being complete has fallen apart.

According to Sport, Barca would have already signed De Ligt if it wasn’t for his meddling agent.

Ajax’s excellent season saw Matthjis and his representative Mino Raiola’s financial ambitions skyrocket. The idea of taking advantage of their unbeatable line-up and the interest of numerous ‘greats’, such as Manchester United, was too attractive to give up the bid.

After the drift in the negotiations, Barça is not willing to give up on its initial offer. Instead, it wants to convince De Ligt that its proposal is the best for the international ‘Oranje’, both for the style of play (the similarities to Ajax and the Netherlands), and for the fact that he would be following alongside his friend De Jong and meeting Leo Messi.

De Ligt’s annual salary demands have allegedly risen to €14m annually, which Barca seems unwilling to pay — at least right now.

Barça are not prepared to break the salary scale of the squad, in an already complicated balance due to the high salaries of their stars. Therefore, it will continue to negotiate with the player’s agent in an operation that has involved the president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who does not want to break the overall strategy for the management of the squad.

Finally, RAC1 journalist Gerard Romero tweeted out this info, which seems to push the divide between De Ligt and Barca even further as Romero states that United and Bayern Munich have stepped into the lead to land the 19-year-old star.

Barça activates alternatives of central in Europe with a profile similar to the Dutch one. The high pretensions of Raiola and better offers (United and Bayern) that the footballer has placed his arrival to Barça in trouble #mercato in @EsportsRAC1

Until we get the tweet of De Ligt posing with a sporting director while holding a pen and paper, it is hard to think this is all anything more than a hardball stance by Raiola to get his client — and himself — more loot.

Did you want to see all of Lewy’s Bundesliga goals? We’ve got you covered courtesy of Bayern (@FCBayernUS)

Carlo wants another shot with James (Calciomercato)

Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti brought James Rodriguez to Bayern and now he wants to do the same for Gli Azzurri per a report from Marca that was captured by Calciomercato.

Italian Serie A club Napoli are interested in signing two Real Madrid midfielders, as per the reports in Spanish press. Madrid-based Marca have reported that Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti, who has managed the Los Blancos in the past, is now interested in signing James Rodriguez and Federico Valverde from his former club.

The suitors might start to line up for James as his time at Bayern nears an end. With Real Madrid almost certain to flip the Colombia international we can add Napoli to the growing list of potential destinations for James that includes Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus, and Atletico Madrid (though, this will probably never happen unless Bayern buys James — which is unlikely per Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge).

Rummenigge said over the weekend (as captured by beIN Sports):

That’s not the style of Bayern. We don’t want to do human trafficking, to push something elsewhere to make some money. FC Bayern has never been that way. We will surely come together next week and we will decide what to do. We must put all options on the table and decide how to handle all those things that aren’t certain yet. We must make exclamation marks out of the question marks.

Oh yeah, and then there is this as well:

Zylla scored for Polish U-20 squad (You Tube - FIFATV)

Bayern’s Marcel Zylla scored in the 37th minute for Poland at the U-20 World Cup during his squad’s 5-0 victory over Tahiti.

Zylla is a 19-year-old attacking midfielder, who can also play wing. The Polish international is slated to make the move from Bayern’s U-19 team to Bayern II in July.

Other U-20 World Cup news:

• Chris Richards has been performing admirably for the United States, but did sustain a minor injury which will likely keep him out of action for a few days, including against Qatar (as we covered here).

Bayern has unnamed Bundesliga competition for Henry Onyekuru (GetGermanFootballNews.com)

Everton-loanee Henry Onyekuru excelled for Galatasarary this season, but might be on his way to Germany.

Everton winger Henry Onyekuru could be set to move to Germany this summer with representatives of the 21-year-old in discussions with two big clubs in the Bundesliga, according to sources contacted by Get German Football News. Reports emerged last week of interest in the player from Bayern Munich, but Get German Football News understands that they may have competition for Onyekuru’s signature. A move to Bavaria would appear to be a logical one, with Bayern in need of wingers following the departures of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.

Arsenal’s raid on the FC Bayern Frauen might continue! (Daily Cannon)

It has become apparent that Arsenal’s master plan is to buy ALL of the Frauen.

After signing Jill Roord and Manuela Zinsberger from Bayern Munich, Arsenal will soon add Leonie Maier, an experienced German international, to their ranks.