Hasan Salihamidzic speaks out against online abuse Joshua Zirkzee received after blunder vs. Ajax

Joshua Zirkzee was subjected to a great deal of online abuse following the open-goal miss he had in Bayern Munich’s 2-2 friendly draw with AFC Ajax at the Allianz Arena last Saturday. He received so much abuse that it provoked him to entirely delete all photos on his Instagram account and this all came after there were audible whistles lodged at him in the stadium right after the miss occurred just before the halftime break, albeit having only come from a small pocket of fans inside the venue.

Of course, it was a mistake as Zirkzee got far too casual after getting around Ajax’s keeper, but it was only a friendly and the situation likely would’ve been different had it been a competitive fixture.

Ahead of Bayern’s 2-0 friendly loss to Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic came to Zirkzee’s defense while speaking to MagentaTV (Az). “The boy was most annoyed that he didn’t score. But these verbal attacks on the net are unbelievable. That has no place in football. I can’t understand that at all, there were limits again being exceeded,” Brazzo explained to the broadcaster. It doesn’t help that his future at Bayern is in question after a lackluster loan spell with Parma in Italy, but that still doesn’t excuse the behavior of those individuals that chose to give him abuse online.

Brazzo insisted that the club is going to take care of Zirkzee and give him a chance to prove himself. Of course, he’d be fighting for minutes with Robert Lewandowski and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, but added depth in that position might not be the worst thing in the world for Julian Nagelsmann to have. “Such a young guy can’t use it. He will have a huge career, he has so much potential. We will take care of him and we will give him the chance,” Brazzo explained.

Ironically enough, reports have recently surfaced out of Italy suggesting Hellas Verona might be interested in signing Zirkzee on a loan deal. Despite having a rough go at Parma, this loan deal might be what’s best for the young striker, given the circumstances. He’d be hard pressed to get many minutes in Bayern’s first team, but he’s already outgrown the reserves, so to speak. Only one friendly remains for Bayern, against SSC Napoli before their competitive program begins on August 6th against Bremer SV in the DFB-Pokal first round. If Nagelsmann’s mind isn’t already made up on Zirkzee, there really isn’t much time for him to make much more of an impression, or lack thereof.

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