Report: Bayern Munich has reached out to Antonio Rudiger’s agent

Antonio Rudiger’s future is still uncertain as Chelsea have yet to start negotiations with him for a new deal.

Is a deal with Bayern Munich possible? Maybe.

Rudiger’s current contract is set to expire next summer, and Thomas Tuchel has recently admitted that even if he wants the center-back to stay with Chelsea, it’s not entirely up to him. Niklas Sule is in a similar situation at Bayern Munich as his contract is also set to expire next summer and he had, at one point during the summer transfer window, been linked with Chelsea.

Per a report from Bild, Bayern has reached out to Rudiger’s agent, Sahr Senesie, who also happens to be his half brother. Christian Falk revealed this information on the Bild program entitled “English Week.” There wasn’t any other specific information regarding the aforementioned outreach, but this comes just two days after a story in the Telegraph reported that Chelsea was not ready to give Rudiger the salary he was asking for, which was around £200,000 (approx. €232,000) a week. Chelsea do not want to offer him anything more than £150,000 per week.

As Tuchel had said, he would still like to keep hold of Rudiger, but the club is remaining firm in their stance that they do not want to offer the center back what he is asking for, similar to the David Alaba situation at Bayern before he ultimately left to join Real Madrid. Chelsea has reportedly (previously) offered Rudiger a salary increase of €8.5 million, but he did not want to accept that offer. Rudiger and his representatives do not want to accept anything less than a double digit million salary. Currently at Chelsea, only Romelu Lukaku, N’Golo Kante, Timo Werner and Saul Niguez earn over a €10 million salary, with Ben Chilwell tacking in just below €10 million.

Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid are also monitoring Rudiger’s situation at Chelsea as both clubs are interested in signing him. When Frank Lampard was still manager, he had even tried to sell the center back to either PSG or Tottenham Hotspur, but a deal with either club was not able to be reached, much to Chelsea’s benefit as his form significantly improved under Tuchel en route to the Champions League title. He’s had a solid start to this season as Chelsea has already recorded five clean sheets across all competitions this season, the most recent of which coming in the 3-0 win over Tottenham in which Rudiger scored Chelsea’s third goal.

Rudiger’s situation at Chelsea parallels Sule’s at Bayern. His contract also expires next summer and a new deal has not yet been offered. He has been an integral piece of Bayern’s defense under Julian Nagelsmann alongside Dayot Upamecano, but could face stiffer competition now that Lucas Hernandez is back fully fit. While a swap deal between Rudiger and Sule might positionally and tactically make sense, there is growing pressure for Bayern’s front office to offer Sule a new deal because of how strongly he’s started the season. Additionally, it’s understood that he would not be asking for as much as Rudiger.

Hopefully for Bayern’s sake, Sule does, in fact, want to stay at Bayern even while facing competition with Upamecano and Hernandez. If he is leaning towards leaving, though, a swap deal with Rudiger might be something Bayern examines more closely. Sule has not outwardly said he wants to leave, but without a new deal in place, he could technically start speaking with other clubs as early as this January.