Karl-Heinz Rummenigge: Tottenham will be Bayern Munich’s first real test

In a recent interview on his birthday for FCBayern.com, Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge talked about Bayern’s performances thus far this season and he had a lot to say. When asked to evaluate the season thus far, Rummenigge was satisfied, but emphasized the need to beat the upcoming opponents to climb to the top:

We’ve won five out of seven games and also had a high-quality draw at Leipzig. The result against Hertha BSC in the opening game was the only one that was a bit painful. If we’d won that, we’d be top of the table now. Nevertheless we can be very happy with the start and we have to make sure we get the maximum out of the upcoming games against Paderborn, Tottenham and Hoffenheim. If we do that, we could be league leaders pretty quickly — and that’s where we want to be.

Bayern has had a relatively strong start to the Bundesliga campaign and currently sits in 2nd place a couple points behind league leader RB Leipzig. Rummenigge was skeptical, however, that multiple teams might battle to win the league after last year’s championship was not decided until the final match day:

It’s still a bit too early to say that. You can’t see how things are progressing until after Matchday 10. It’s important that we’re up there from the start. We mustn’t let ourselves fall nine points behind like last year. We have a top squad and can look forward to the future with optimism.

While they have had some surprises this season in the Bundesliga, most notably Freiburg currently in 4th, Bayern seem to be in a prime position to not allow themselves to repeat last seasons disappointing start to the season where they fell to 9 points behind.

Furthermore, Rummenigge expressed his excitement about Bayern’s upcoming trip to London for their challenging match vs Tottenham. Rummenigge views Tottenham as Bayern’s “first real test”:

Firstly they got to the final last year, and secondly it has to be said that the Premier League is stronger than the Bundesliga at the moment. We’ll need a good performance there. I’m looking forward to the game. It’s a great stadium — the most expensive in the world, at any rate. It’ll be my first time there but London is always worth the journey.

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

It’s clear Rummenigge is optimistic about Bayern’s chances in this upcoming Bundesliga and Champions League season. Finally, Rummenigge discussed preparations to integrate his designated successor, Oliver Kahn:

I’ve had various conversations with Oliver Kahn already. It’s important for him to get to know FC Bayern anew because some things have completely changed. Oliver has realised pretty quickly how big FC Bayern has become. The whole football industry has changed. I’ll support him and then hand him the baton on 31 December 2021. He’ll give it his best and I have no doubts that it will run smoothly.

Ois guade zum Geburtsdog, Kalle!