Daily Schmankerl: The greatness of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski; Juventus botched Erling Haaland deal; Dortmund eyeing American prospect; AC Milan, Fiorentina want Real Madrid’s Luka Jovic; plus MORE!

The greatness of Lewandowski (You Tube — FC Bayern Munich)

Sometimes when you are watching greatness over a long period of time, it starts to become normalized when it really should not.

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski has been so good, for so long, that fans almost come to expect him to do marvelous things time after time after time.

Every once in a while, though, it is good to step back and just appreciate how great someone or something is.

Thanks to the club, fans can do just that with this video of Lewandowski:

Juve botched Haaland deal (Transfer Market Web)

Imaging you are a big club with the world’s next big thing firmly in your grasp...and then you let it slip away. Well, then you would be at Juventus, who balked at signing Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland for a measly €2 million, while the Norwegian was a youth player at Molde:

Courted by big European teams while he was in Molde (Norwegian League), Erling Haaland had finally chosen to join Red Bull Salzburg for a season before Borussia Dortmund blew their release clause, matched to 20 million euros.

However, Juventus Turin could have signed the Norwegian striker according to the words of former bianconero general manager Giuseppe Marotta, now stationed at Inter Milan.

“One of my biggest regrets is the Erling Haaland case. At the time, I was the GM of Juventus and we had the option to sign him for €2million from Molde ... it was very close. Now it is impossible to see Haaland in Serie A - there is no chance for Italian clubs to sign him next summer,” he explained during the Trento Sport festival (northeast of Italy).

ICYMI: Bavarian Podcast Works: Weekend Warm-up Podcast Season 1, Episode 20

A week without Bayern Munich? (Gasp!)

It’s okay, we’ve still got some chatter on the Bavarians to yammer about. Tom Adams joins me for the Weekend Warm-up podcast and this is the slate of topics on the agenda:

• Tom’s adult league the burning question on whether he drinks beer after the game.
• A discussion on Bayern Munich’s form heading into the break.
• The transfer rumors on Niklas Süle and Karim Adeyemi — and what we think should happen with those two players as it relates to Bayern Munich.
• Hansi Flick’s commitment to Germany.
• A quick, non-spoiler review of the The Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark.

As always, thanks for your support and let us know what you think!

Dortmund eyeing US talent (Sport1)

Borussia Dortmund could be eyeing another American prospect — Seattle Sounders midfielder Reed Baker-Whiting. BVB will have to ward off Liverpool and Manchester City to land the 16-year-old:

BVB is constantly looking for new talent. With Jude Bellingham and Giovanni Reyna, Dortmund already have two jewels in their team. Both were nominated for the Kopa Trophy for the best player of the year under the age of 21. Reyna moved to Dortmund from the USA in 2019.

The black and yellows will soon help themselves overseas again. According to the mlssoccer.com portal , Dortmund are interested in Reed Baker-Whiting from the Seattle Sounders. The 16-year-old American signed his first professional contract in Seattle in May. Baker-Whiting was used four times in the current MLS season.

However, the Dortmunders apparently have high-class competition. Liverpool FC and Manchester City also have the midfielder on the list, according to the report. However, Baker-Whiting cannot move to Europe until he is 18, as he does not have a European passport.

In Christian Pulisic, who moved to Chelsea, BVB had already had good experiences with a US talent.

Villa wanted Hickey, too (Football Transfer Tavern)

Bayern Munich was linked to Scottish defender Aaron Hickey for quite a while before the youngster ultimately signed with Bologna. It appears that Aston Villa went after Hockey last summer:

Aston Villa attempted to sign Aaron Hickey from Bologna during the summer transfer window, according to Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness). Hickey joined Bologna from Scottish Premiership side Hearts in September 2020 for a fee of £1.5million.

The Serie A outfit beat off competition from German giants Bayern Munich to secure the left-back’s signature. Hickey has started all seven of Bologna’s Serie A matches so far this season, scoring twice (via WhoScored).

Villa manager Dean Smith currently has Matt Targett and the versatile veteran Ashley Young available in the left-back position. The report states that, in the summer, Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers ‘looked for’ 19-year-old Hickey. But ‘Aston Villa also came forward’, only to find that Bologna viewed him as ‘absolutely not transferable’.

But he’ll soon outgrow the mid-table outfit and be ready to turn out for a bigger club, no doubt generating a healthy profit for Bologna.

Ginter, Zakaria could be set for longer stays with Gladbach (Sport1)

Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Max Eberl is confident that he can make good offers to both Matthias Ginter and Denis Zakaria:

Max Eberl, sports director of Borussia Mönchengladbach, is confident that he will soon be able to present Denis Zakaria and Matthias Ginter with an adequate offer to extend their contract. Bild revealed to the 48-year-old that concrete offers for Ginter and Zakaria could be prepared in the near future. Eberl relies on income from ticket sales: “The stadiums are currently getting full again. If things continue like this, the next goal is to make sensible offers to both of them. “

Borussia has not yet made an offer to either player due to a lack of financial resources due to the corona pandemic. With Zakaria in particular, Eberl is optimistic that he can offer him good prospects: “He’s just getting better and better. He and Adi Hütter know each other from Bern, we can show him a very good perspective.”

The situation looks a bit more difficult with the experienced world champion Ginter: “If he wants to play for the championship again, then I can’t promise him that here. But it is clear that it is of outstanding importance to us.”

The contracts of the two service providers expire next summer. Zakaria and Ginter could then leave the club for free.

Serie A squads want Jovic (Transfer Market Web)

Luka Jovic’s jump to Real Madrid has proven to be a case study for “too much, too soon” and now it appears that the club might be ready to let him move on. Fiorentina and AC Milan are reportedly interested in the former Eintracht Frankfurt man:

The Serbian forward, owned by Real Madrid, could leave the club next summer. Two clubs from Italy are the best positioned to close the incorporation of Luka Jovic. After standing out notably in the seasons in which he has defended the Eintracht Frankfurt team, where he has scored some 40 goals in 93 games, Luka Jovic has returned to the Spanish capital to earn a place in the Real Madrid eleven.

However, as our colleagues from Diario As indicate, Luka Jovic’s return coincided with Karim Benzema’s best moment at Real Madrid. The French striker is running as one of the main candidates to win the Ballon d’Or, and Luka Jovic is experiencing this growth of the French in his own flesh. If already Luka Jovic has shown little in Real Madrid, where he has scored two goals in almost 40 games, Benzema’s great moment of form does not help him to continue adding minutes with the Real Madrid shield.

For this reason, two Italian clubs follow the situation of the Serbian striker.

-AC Milan: AC Milan would be very interested in closing the arrival of Luka Jovic. The rossonero club is bidding to win the Italian national championship and the arrival of Jovic would increase their chances.

-Fiorentina: The rumors about Dusan Vlahovic do not stop flying over the Florence club. Therefore, Luka Jovic would be the perfect replacement for Vlahovic, the Italians plan to replace the Serbian striker with his countryman.

ICYMI: Bavarian Podcast Works Postgame Show: Talking points from Germany’s 2-1 win over Romania (Bavarian Football Works)

Germany managed to scrape a win against an extremely well-drilled Romania side in what becomes the first problematic game of Hansi Flick’s short tenure. Starting with five Bayern Munich players in the lineup, the Germans went down early to a goal by Ianis Hagi and struggled to stamp their authority on the game. While Serge Gnabry and Thomas Muller eventually brought home all three points, questions will be asked about the nature of the performance.

Here are our talking points from the game:

• How Hansi Flick got his lineup and tactics completely wrong.
• Giving credit to Romania for a strong performance at the back.
• Why Timo Werner and Marco Reus should not be starting for Germany anymore — at least in the role they have currently.
• The problem with Germany’s fullbacks at the moment.
• Some lovely Thomas Muller propaganda, which we always love to hear.
• Some experiments Hansi Flick needs to make in the upcoming games.

Roca dropped a new hype video (@marcroca21)

Here at BFW, we are always fans of “hype videos” that players have their “people” put together. The #StepOverKing Michael Cuisance became know for these. Now, it appears that Marc Roca is jumping on that train:

If he starts injuring his teammates in practice, we might have to keep on these videos.