Uli Hoeness still unsure of potential Erling Haaland transfer to Bayern Munich

The question is always just beneath the surface for Bayern Munich fans. When the time does come to replace Robert Lewandowski, who will his long term replacement be? You’d be remised to find many Bayern fans that wouldn’t suggest Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, but since that narrative has come about, his wages have always been the main topic of concern from Bayern’s perspective, especially as a club that doesn’t believe in astronomical transfer fees.

Haaland’s agent, Mino Raiola, would be demanding Haaland be paid a yearly salary of €50m, which is an astronomical fee that would completely tear apart the wage structure at Bayern. In 2021, only Lewandowski made more than €20 million and Manuel Neuer and Leroy Sane were right behind him at €18 million and €17 million. €50 million, even for a player like Haaland, would not be realistically feasible if Bayern wants to keep structural integrity with their wage distributions. Still, though, those figures are not final and for all intents and purposes, Bayern could try to negotiate those figures down if they seriously begin a pursuit of signing Haaland.

In a recent appearance on Philipp Westermeyer’s OMR podcast (via Sport1), Uli Hoeness said that Bayern should walk a fine line between courage and logic when it comes to a potential Haaland transfer. Admittedly, at this juncture, Hoenss doesn’t know exactly what the fees would look like, and thus couldn’t definitely say whether it’d be a go or not. “I do not know that. I don’t know the sums at the moment.” To continue, the former Bayern president said he would have to “always see the whole package” with this type of transfer of a high profile, world class talent like Haaland. You can’t just make the decisions based off of what other people are saying about him. He has to fit Bayern Munich.

Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images

When Hoeness was president, he played a large part in the decision-making processes for Bayern’s transfers, which obviously isn’t the case now. Those efforts are spearheaded by Hasan Salihamidizc, Oliver Kahn, and Herbert Hainer, but the club’s supervisory board still has somewhat of a say in the matter. While Hoeness has always been against highly-inflated transfer fees and wages, he said that there is still room to take risks. “The board of directors has to decide and discuss it in the supervisory board. But I know that there is absolutely nothing concrete on the table at the moment. Well, I’ve always said: If I’ve been convinced, then I’ve taken great risks, which can also go wrong. Where wood is chopped, splinters must fall,” he said.