Serge Gnabry, Bayern Munich still brokering salary for a contract extension

Bayern Munich has made it clear that they have every intention of getting Serge Gnabry to sign a contract extension with the club at some point in the near future. His current contract is set to expire in 2023 and he would follow suit from both Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka, both of whom have recently signed new deals with the club. Bayern would also like to give Thomas Muller an extension, while Niklas Sule’s future still hangs in the balance.

For Gnabry’s case, there really isn’t a question at this point whether or not he’ll get a new deal, it’s just a matter of all parties agreeing on an appropriate salary. Per Sport1 and Bild information, as captured by az, Gnabry is asking for a pay increase that would wind up making him one of the top earners at Bayern, in the same echelon as Robert Lewandowski, Lucas Hernandez, Thomas Muller and Leroy Sane, who are currently the top earners at the club.

On paper, Gnabry is certainly a candidate worthy of getting a pay raise based on his recent performances for the club, but it’s not that simple. Bayern is still feeling the financial losses from the offset of the coronavirus pandemic and have to be even more fiscally responsible than they already are, keeping a harmonious balance amongst their wage structure. So far this season, Gnabry has scored eight goals and has provided four assists from a total of eighteen appearances across all competitions, and has aided Julian Nagelsmann’s luxury of having in-form wingers between the likes of Gnabry, Leroy Sane, Jamal Musiala, and most recently, Kingsley Coman.

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Bayern’s front office will have the difficult task of reaching a salary agreement with Gnabry that both rewards him for recent performances, but also does not severely conflate the overall balance of the squad’s wage structure. If he were to become one of the top earners with his new deal, other players would certainly be lining up expecting more money, giving the front office less leverage at the negotiating table for subsequent candidates. What’s working in both Gnabry’s and Bayern’s favor is his desire to stay on the team and stick with fellow “1995-ers” Kimmich and Goretzka. Sule was also born in that year, but his future with the club is far less certain.

If a new deal isn’t struck prior to the end of the season, a lot of it could hinge on the finical results yielded in the upcoming transfer windows. Oliver Kahn had recently made it clear to Hasan Salihamidzic that expects good financial results from the upcoming windows to help make up some of the financial losses as well as getting rid of some of the dead weight on Bayern’s roster. Kahn highlighted the lack of incoming funds from the last two transfer windows for Bayern and their inability to sell certain players. He wants that to change, and for Gnabry’s sake, the chances of a bigger salary would be higher with significant profits both this winter and next summer.