Uli Hoeneß not worried about Bayern Munich finding a Robert Lewandowski replacement that’s not Erling Haaland

Every week there seems to be a new rumor as far as what Erling Haaland’s future has in store. Will he renew his contract at Borussia Dortmund, will he wind up leaving the club, and will he, one day, be Robert Lewandowski’s long-term successor at Bayern Munich? On paper, Haaland would, in theory, be the perfect replacement for Lewandowski at Bayern, but there are so many moving parts to consider and potential roadblocks that would make that increasingly less realistic, one of which being the high transfer fee Bayern would probably have to pay to acquire him.

With Bayern’s front office, there’s a general consensus that Lewandowski can play at the highest level for Bayern for at least another couple of seasons, which makes Haaland’s timeline of availability for a transfer there even shorter. With the form Lewandowski is in, and without a history of injury problems, there’s no need to replace him as of yet, and Uli Hoeneß echoed this sentiment in a recent interview with the sports information. “If we didn’t have Robert Lewandowski, thank God we have him, FC Bayern would have to deal with Haaland,” he said (Sport1). At the same time, there’s simply no denying Haaland’s quality and Hoeness said that he would “look good” in any team that he winds up going to if and when he does leave Dortmund.

Whoever winds up buying Haaland from Dortmund will assuredly have to pay an astronomical transfer fee to accommodate said transfer. There are few clubs that can currently afford to make a considerable investment like that and Bayern has been quite vociferous in speaking out against over-inflated transfer fees and high wages. Oliver Kahn recently called for clubs across Europe to start adopting salary caps in efforts to try and mitigate these fees to keep inflating at the rate they have been. Hoeness knows that a sale of Lewandowski and purchase of Haaland would involve a significant amount of cash, easily surpassing their record transfer for Lucas Hernandez of €80 million. “FC Bayern would have been hit with the bucket bag if they sent Robert away and fetched Erling Haaland at any cost,” Hoeness said.

Taking Haaland out of the conversation, Hoeneß still has faith that when the time does come, Bayern will eventually find a top caliber replacement for Lewandowski when he leaves the club. “There will then be another soccer player somewhere in the world who can wear the number nine at Bayern Munich,” he reconciled.

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