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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month and a half, you’ll know that Manchester City’s Leroy Sane has been linked with a potential move to Bayern Munich. As it’s so often the case during the transfer window, the narrative seems to change on an almost daily basis as to whether or not he’ll make the move to Munich.
The 23-year old scored in Germany’s 2-0 win over Belarus in Euro 2020 qualifying and ahead of their second qualifier against Estonia, Die Mannschaft general manager Oliver Bierhoff said the Bundesliga would greatly benefit from Sane making a move to Bayern (via Merkuer.de):
The Bundesliga would definitely benefit if a player like Leroy Sane were here. It is important that they play at the highest level. Also, that they play regularly. Every player gets better if he trains with top players and has to compete with top teams every week.
Fellow compatriots Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, and Serge Gnabry have already done their part to try and convince Sane to transfer to Bayern, and for what it’s worth, they probably talk about it in the dressing room more than it’s actually reported on.
With Manuel Neuer, Sven Ulreich, Niklas Sule, Kimmich, Goretzka, and Gnabry all in the national team squad for the qualifiers, the topic has certainly come up more than once among them.
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At this point, it seems as if the main issue in play is the price that Manchester City would ask for. It’s been suggested that the Premier League champions would be asking for a fee close to €100m, which could prove to be too steep of a fee for Bayern, especially after Uli Hoeness had come out and said that they would not spend more than €80m on anyone player during the transfer window.
Sane’s current contract with City runs through the summer of 2021, so as BFW’s own Chuck Smith said in Episode 9 of our podcast, this could just be a matter of Sane and his agents trying to get a more lucrative contract with City. It could also be a matter of City using Bayern’s interest to bolster his transfer value for other clubs that might be interested and ready to break the €100m mark to sign him. Regardless, it’s reassuring that even Die Mannschaft mangers, like Bierhoff, are subtly advocating Sane to move to the Bundesliga.