Daily Schmankerl: Eintracht Frankfurt wins the Europa League!; Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona competing for Borna Sosa?; Erling Haaland hits club in warm-up suit; Frenkie de Jong to take pay cut for City move; & MORE!

Bayern, Barca also competing on Sosa? (Bild via BuLiNews.com)

Are Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona both eyeing VfB Stuttgart left wing-back Borna Sosa? One report says so:

Bild claims that FC Bayern have joined Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona in the race for Stuttgart’s Borna Sosa.

A departure for Sosa is likely to be on the cards this summer, with Borussia Dortmund and FC Barcelona also thought to be interested in him.

It would reportedly take an offer of around €25 million to prize the Croatian international away from Stuttgart.

I would not understand Sosa moving to Bayern Munich only to get stuck behind Alphonso Davies. Unless the Bavarians know something we do not about the future plans of Davies, it would seem like a misplaced use of funds from the transfer budget.

Bayern won’t sign Pogba (Sport 1)

According to Sport1, those rumors stating that Bayern Munich has interest in Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba are rubbish:

After a not entirely convincing season with the surprising quarter-finals in the Champions League against Villarreal and the cup debacle against Gladbach, does FC Bayern hit the transfer market on a grand scale and sign Paul Pogba?

Gazzetta dello Sport recently reported that the club wanted to sign the superstar from Manchester United this summer and had already made an offer .

However, this does not correlate with SPORT1 information. There is no serious interest in the French world champion. Also because Ryan Gravenberch from Ajax Amsterdam is said to be a new midfielder with development potential.

The Munich team is still negotiating the fee with the Dutch champions, but are getting closer and closer. Gravenberch has already told his teammates that there is a high probability that he will go to Munich. And Pobga? According to Italian media reports, his ex-club Juventus Turin wants to bring him back.

Bavarian Podcast Works Season 4, Episode 32 (Bavarian Football Works)

Well, the bombshell dropped. Since our last podcast, Robert Lewandowski has officially confirmed that he wants to leave Bayern Munich this summer. This is obviously the biggest news of the week, but since we already covered the topic of potential replacements in previous podcasts, we here at BPW decided to take a different track.

In addition, please welcome our new podcaster — Teddy Son! He was gracious enough to hop in when another scheduling issue threatened to delay this episode further.

In this episode, INNN and Teddy discuss:

• Does the Bayern Munich board deserve blame for this Lewandowski mess?
• How the board has conducted self-sabotage in major contract negotiations since 2019.
• How the board forgot the human aspect of negotiations.
• Defending Hasan Salihamidzic and (some of) his work for the club.
• The strange vibes of Herbert Hainer and Oliver Kahn — too corporate for Bayern Munich?
• Why Lewandowski’s ugly contract saga leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
• Discussing alternatives: Does Stuttgart’s Sasa Kalajdzic make sense as a Lewy successor?
• Should Bayern Munich sell Lewandowski now, or keep him and lose him for free next summer?

Haaland wears BVB warm-up suit out to club (@Football__Tweet)

This is hilarious:

Hopefully this does not inspire Tom Adams to wear his BFW track suit with “Tweet Meister” emblazoned on the back out to the club this weekend.

De Jong would give up pay to join Man City (Daily Mail)

FC Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong might really take a significant pay cut just to join Manchester City and play under Pep Guardiola:

Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong is reportedly ready to forego almost £6million in outstanding wages to seal a move to Manchester City this summer.

Pep Guardiola missed out on the chance to sign the Holland midfielder when he moved to the Camp Nou from Ajax in a £65million deal in 2019, but is now set to lose club captain Fernandinho.

The Catalan giants offered de Jong a whopping £400,000-a-week deal after tax when he signed three years ago, but are now grappling with a financial crisis which in November 2020 caused players like him and Gerard Pique to defer 30 per cent of their wages for a year.

De Jong has been linked to Bayern Munich, but the fit does not seem right for either party at this time.

Bavarian Podcast Works: Postgame Show — Wolfsburg 2-2 Bayern Munich (Bavarian Football Works)

Bayern Munich, in keeping with the theme of the season, took a 0-2 lead and then succumbed to a 2-2 draw against VfL Wolfsburg.

In this podcast, we look at:

• Bayern’s revamped lineup including Josip Stanisic
• Some sneaky criticism of Julian Nagelsmann
• Mullendowski’s possibly last combo goal
• The game being a microcosm of Bayern’s season
• A look back at the game that might have virtually ended Bayern’s season
• Thoughts about future transfers including possibly Sasa Kaladjzic
• Thoughts on Stuttgart’s survival
• Why Bayern should care about Stuttgart’s survival
• Thoughts on where Alphonso Davies should play
• Leroy Sané — What the heck was that miss?
• A reminder about why winning the Bundesliga is difficult

Soyke says Schick and Nunez are the best options to replace Lewy (Tz)

Transfer expert Marius Soyke thinks Bayern Munich should pursue Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick or Benfica’s Darwin Nunez:

Possible successors to Lewandowski have been discussed for weeks. There is even a list of nine potential candidates . Sébastien Haller from Ajax Amsterdam is considered a possible favourite . But Patrik Schick is also given a chance. He was already “reminiscent of Lewandowski in the Serie A days,” says Marius Soyke, an expert from transfermarkt.de , to tz.de and Merkur.de about the Leverkusen goal getter.

Besides Schick, Soyke sees another promising striker who could follow in Lewandowski’s immense footsteps: Darwin Núñez. He is currently shooting everything short and small in Portugal and has scored 34 goals in 41 games at Benfica this season. The striker is a promise for the future.

Soyke therefore sees a possible duel in terms of Lewandowski’s successor at Bayern: “In my opinion, from Hasan Salihamidzic’s point of view, it should be decided between Schick and Núñez. The Uruguayan has perhaps made the biggest move of any top forward this season and offers a strong combination of age (22) and odds. However, the competition for Núñez is fierce and advertising for 2023 could already be too late.”

Both players, however, have transfer fees that would likely preclude them from being realistic targets.

Werner chats near move to LFC (Sport1)

Timo Werner recently talked through how he almost went to Liverpool instead of Chelsea FC:

Timo Werner will move from RB Leipzig to Chelsea in summer 2020. The national player, who was and is repeatedly associated with FC Bayern, also had other options.

“When I was in Leipzig, I had the opportunity to get into the Premier League,” Werner said, according to the Daily Star. ”Liverpool was on my mind too and a big possibility for me but in the end I chose Chelsea - and I won the Champions League title last year. It wasn’t the worst decision.”

Barca will try to push Depay on Bayern (Barca Universal)

FC Barcelona might try to make any deal for Robert Lewandowski a swap by including Memphis Depay:

A recent report from Mundo Deportivo has offered a status update, claiming Barcelona are set to begin negotiations in the coming days and are weighing up a bid of up to €35 million.

A crucial piece of the puzzle could be Memphis Depay. Since Barcelona are ideally not in a position to shell out anything over €30 million over an individual, they are open to sacrificing a few of their own stars in an attempt to lower the valuation.

Depay has emerged as one such candidate for Barça. The report indicates the Catalans are willing to include the Dutchman as part of the deal if Bayern are interested in his services.

No thanks.

Bavarian Podcast Works: Weekend Warm-up Podcast Season 1, Episode 49 (Bavarian Football Works)

Bayern Munich will close out its season against Wolfsburg this weekend, but we had plenty — and I mean plenty — to talk about and discuss this week.

Here is what we have on tap for this week’s episode:

• A look at why the latest news about Robert Lewandowski wanting to leave Bayern Munich is devastating and is made even worse by the fact that the Bavarians also missed on Erling Haaland. The Norwegian seems set for a move to Manchester City.
• We also tackle the alleged discontent growing between the Bayern Munich coaching staff and front office. Can the two sides get aligned? Moreover, why weren’t the philosophical differences hammered out during the hiring process to see if everything was a fit?
• Why Marcel Sabitzer probably should look to leave Bayern Munich even if he wants to stay.
• A look at the latest on those rumors surrounding Konrad Laimer and Frenkie de Jong.

Mai returns to Bayern (@werderbremen_en)

Lars Lukas Mai will be leaving Werder Bremen and will head back to Bayern Munich after playing in 17 games this season.

Mai received most of his playing time early in the season, but that faded in the second half as the defender made only five appearances in the Rückrunde: