CEO Oliver Kahn says Bayern Munich did everything it could to keep Niklas Süle

With the news breaking of Niklas Süle’s imminent departure from Bayern Munich, club CEO Oliver Kahn held a press conference to try and prevent things from spiraling out of control.

During the event, Kahn addressed what happened with the Germany international from the club’s perspective and acknowledged that the star center-back will, indeed, leave the club at the end of the season.

“The negotiations with Niklas dragged on for a very long time. We made him an offer. He didn’t accept it. He wants to leave the club at the end of the season. We have a certain responsibility when it comes to the offers. We we have to stick to certain financial conditions. It’s normal in this business that you’ll not always each an agreement,” Kahn said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).

What was confusing for fans — and probably Süle as well — was the statement made by club president Herbert Hainer on Sunday, which effectively said that Bayern Munich was waiting on a response from the big defender.

As we all know by now, Süle had already made up his mind to leave prior to Hainer’s interview.

“I think Herbert Hainer wanted to leave a small back door open. Now we know how the situation is. Everything has happened over the past few days. At some point, the player made his decision,” Kahn said. “We always look at all options. We have a lot of options when it comes to the position. Of course we’re considering players. We have Lucas Hernández, an excellent center-back in (Dayot) Upamecano, a talent in (Tanguy) Nianzou. (Benjamin) Pavard can also play there.”

Finally, Kahn said he felt like the club did everything within reason to try and retain Süle.

“We made Niklas a very, very good offer. He’s been solid and playing with confidence lately. We still need that from him for the rest of this season. But we have certain economic limits. Sometimes you just don’t reach an agreement, it happens,” Kahn said. “The talks with Niklas went on for months. I think he has shown very good performances here in the past five years. He’s one of the best center-backs out there right now. I think we always showed him respect and appreciation.”

Süle has been linked to Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, and Newcastle United among other clubs.