Reports suggest Jerome Boateng will stay at Bayern Munich

At the end of the 2018/2019 campaign, Jerome Boateng looked like he was destined to leave Bayern Munich in the summer transfer window. He cut a frustrated figure as he lost out on playing time to Niklas Süle and Mats Hummels. Now, the arrival of both Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard at Bayern has put his minutes in even more jeopardy, all but forcing the center-back to move elsewhere.

There’s now less than a week left in a transfer window. While Boateng has recently been linked with both Fenerbache and AS Roma, Bayern have not yet received a concrete offer for him. Both Sky and kicker now report that Bayern expects to keep Boateng on the squad as the likelihood that he may leave is now very low. Additionally, both reports say that Bayern has ruled out a loan option for Boateng, meaning that the only way he could leave the club would be if he was permanently sold.

Per kicker’s print edition (via tz), Bayern would be tempted to sell Boateng before the transfer deadline only if an “elite” European club came in with an appropriate offer:

Unless a club from the European elite is driven by an extremely sudden need for a central defender, Boateng will stay. Both the Bayern bosses and the player himself presume that will be the case.

Additionally, Niko Kovac said “We have a lot to offer in central defense,” suggesting that he’s more than happy to have so much depth and competition for minutes at center-back. Whether Boateng feels the same way as Kovac is another story, but at this point, it doesn’t look as if he really has any other option than to stay, hunker down, and fight for a more consistent presence in the squad. Perhaps a feasible offer from a European club will come in the winter, but for now, Boateng should plan on remaining a Bayern Munich player.