Uli Hoeneß recalls the first time he tried to hire Julian Nagelsmann for Bayern Munich

Uli Hoeneß made quite a few brazen moves during his tenure in the front office at Bayern Munich, but one of the fee that “got away” was the first time that he wanted to hire Julian Nagelsmann.

Nagelsmann was a young coach at Hoffenheim, but Hoeneß saw something that he knew would be a fit on Säbener Straße.

“A few years ago, I was sitting in my office with Julian. At that time he had agreed to work with us as a youth coach. But then he said: “Mr. Hoeneß, I have a problem: You have to call Mr. (Dietmar) Hopp, because I still have a year contract in Hoffenheim,” Hoeneß told DPA (as captured by Twitter account @iMiaSanMia). “I called Dietmar Hopp in Julian’s presence. He said: ‘Uli, you cannot do that! He’s supposed to become our head coach in the Bundesliga.’ Julian then said that he couldn’t do that to Dietmar and move to Bayern.”

It took a few years, but Hoeneß finally saw Nagelsmann sign a deal to be Bayern Munich’s manager.

“I trust Julian a lot as a coach. He has a road to success behind him. The fact he thinks outside the box at a young age is very impressive. He always says the right thing even on difficult topics. I’m totally happy that we have him. Julian is worth every euro,” Hoeneß said.