Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sane praises positive encouragement from Uli Hoeness

Leroy Sane from the beginning of the season up to the Leroy Sane we see now for both Bayern Munich and the German national team almost seem like two, separate players with the drastic improvements he’s shown.

From a total of 26 appearances across all competitions this season, Sane has tallied 11 goals and 11 assists, and he also bagged 4 goals and an assist for the German national team in World Cup qualifiers across the last three international breaks. The boos and whistles aimed at him at the Allianz Arena are well and truly a thing of the past and the continued support from Julian Naglesmann, Sane’s teammates, and Bayern’s front office have paid dividend.

Speaking to Bild am Sonntag over the weekend, Sane also said that he had receive support from former Bayern president Uli Hoeness, who is now an honorary president and still holds a seat on the club’s supervisory board. “The whole club management, but also Uli Hoeneß contacted me and signaled absolute support,” Sane said (Tz). Ironically enough, Hoeness had questioned Sane’s attitude and mentality in the past when he was still with Manchester City, but linked with a move to Bayern. It’s a transfer saga that wound up lasting for what seemed to be eons with his knee injury in the summer of 2019 that severely complicated negotiations between both clubs, but Hoeness has clearly had his minds changed since then.

“So much encouragement is not a matter of course in every club,” Sane continued, expressing his gratitude for the continued faith Bayern has shown in him. With his price tag combined with the drawn out nature of the transfer saga, so much expectation was placed on Sane when the deal was finally done. He’s recently admitted how difficult it was in his first season to fulfill said expectations coming off of his cruciate ligament injury and to regain momentum after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic caused the Bundesliga to pause for two months in the 2019/20 treble-winning season.

Photo by Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images

Nagelsmann, in consultation with Hansi Flick, made the tactical decision to switch Sane to the left wing from the right, and that switch seems to have coincided with the beginning of his resurgence to top form. Flick was able to work with Sane before leaving to manage Die Mannschaft and the relationship Nagelsmann and Flick have makes it all the more beneficial for Bayern. Flick might not get as much of the public credit for Sane’s resurgence, but he said that Nagelsmann “shows me again and again how I can be even better in his game system and how we can improve together as a team.” The continuity between support from both Nagelsmann and Flick has worked wonders on Sane.